Young architects for Building Biospheres (Biennale Architettura 2025)

As part of the closed call launched by the Curators of the Belgian Pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2025 (Building Biospheres, landscape architect Bas Smets and biologist Stefano Mancuso) and the VAI, 25 promising designers were invited to submit their ideas for the architecture of natural intelligence.

The selection committee, comprising Bas Smets (Bureau Bas Smets), Lisa De Visscher (ULiège), Véronique Patteeuw (ENSAPL), Dirk De Pauw (UGent), Kathy Steppe (UGent), Dennis Pohl (VAi) and Petrus Kemme (VAi), nominated four young design teams working on a new architecture in which natural intelligence plays a leading role. They are studying the spatial impact of the prototype that curators Bas Smets and Stefano Mancuso are presenting in the Belgian pavilion.

• Elmēs is a Brussels-based architecture firm that focuses on purposeful projects, capturing the frictional relationship between architecture and the many layers of reality. The firm was founded in 2020 by Vinh Linh, Thomas Mertens and Jochen Schamelhout.
• Maud Goossens (independent architect) and Henri Uijtterhagen (BC architects & studies) both teach at KU Leuven. From different perspectives, but with a shared enthusiasm and sense of experimentation, Maud and Henri search for new insights within the broad field of architecture. This thanks to links across disciplines. In a humble and open-minded way, they strive to add value to our living environment through architecture.
• Panta is a multidisciplinary practice with a focus on architecture, furniture and industrial design. For each project or object, the focus is on an open and sustainable relationship between user and artifact. Founded by Stefaan Jamaer, Panta has been based in Brussels since 2022.
• Lisa Mandelartz Schenk is associated with the Chair of Housing at RWTH Aachen University. She studied Art History and Social Sciences in Basel and Monument and Landscape Care in Antwerp. Steven Schenk teaches at KU Leuven while simultaneously working on a doctorate there. He studied Architecture at the University of Antwerp, the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio and ETH Zurich. Their work focuses on humane and enchanting aspects of architecture, with an interest in the alchemy of space, construction and materials.

The selected designers will develop additional concepts for Building Biospheres. They will do this in a series of workshops under the artistic direction of Lisa De Visscher and coordinated by Petrus Kemme. The resulting work will be part of the Building Biospheres exhibition in the Belgian pavilion at the Biennale Architettura in Venice from early May 2025.