On behalf of the 2023 Venice Biennale Committee, I am delighted to invite Expressions of Interest for Creative Directorship at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale Di Venezia. The Australian Institute of Architects has a strong affiliation with this world-renowned Exhibition, and we are excited to once again showcase the very best of the Australian design community in Venice, Italy.
The theme for the 18th La Biennale Di Venezia, The Laboratory of the Future, allows Creative Directors to interpret broad guidelines that encourage ingenuity and imagination.
Involvement in La Biennale Di Venezia provides an opportunity for Members of The Institute, to exhibit on a world-stage amongst a cohort of international colleagues. This is a highly coveted professional development opportunity and I encourage you to consider your application to participate as the 2023 La Biennale Di Venezia Creative Director.
Further information including past winners and detailed entry requirements can be viewed here.
The Australian exhibition for the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale has been exhibited locally for the first time since Australia opened its pavilion in Venice in 1988. Curated by Jefa Greenaway and Tristan Wong, Inbetween presents a collection of architectural projects and processes selected for their powerful representation of Indigenous and First Nations peoples and cultures; projects that enable cross cultural exchange and highlight the value of Indigenous knowledge for improving the built environment.
Navigating the limitations of current border restrictions, Inbetween has been reimagined as an immersive, large scale and suitably beautiful video piece. “What we’re looking at through the exhibition is how architects, both non-indigenous and Indigenous, are working with First Nations peoples – traditional owners, knowledge keepers and elders – as a way of embedding cultural authenticity into our built environment.” explains Jefa. “Beyond that, we’re opening up a conversation around some of the shared challenges we’re facing in our broader Pacific region and pointing to the fact that when finding ways to connect with Indigenous culture, we don’t operate in a vacuum.”
The Biennale is one of the most prestigious international exhibitions of architecture, showcasing leaders in contemporary design and architecture from around the world.
The Biennale is a unique opportunity to reach non-traditional and underserved audiences. The Institute, through its Venice Biennale Creative Directors, aims to engage these audiences in Venice and through local outreach activities associated with the exhibition.
The Australian Institute of Architects will present HOME at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, which will run from 8 May – 20 November in 2025.
The HOME proposal for the Venice Biennale 2025 presents an immersive, culturally rich experience grounded in Indigenous knowledge systems and architectural innovation. Led by Dr Michael Mossman, Emily McDaniel, and Jack Gillmer (Lilley), as part of a Creative Sphere of First Nations architects and practitioners, the project conceptualises “home” as a convergence of memory, sensation, relationships, and future. The pavilion design integrates natural and artificial elements, focusing on sustainability, community engagement, and deep connections with Country.
The proposal offers visitors an interactive space — the Country Sphere — designed for sensory engagement with earth, sound, and tactile elements. Participants are invited to leave their mark on the Living Canvas, sharing stories of home through a fusion of ancient traditions and contemporary technologies. The pavilion fosters deep connections with the environment, utilising both physical experiences and digital extensions through augmented reality.
The Creative Sphere of Indigenous leadership of Mossman, McDaniel and Gillmer, and Clarence Slockee, Kaylie Salvatori, Elle Davidson, and Bradley Kerr, alongside global ambassadors, will bring rich cultural programming to the pavilion. This will feature storytelling, performance, future generational contributions and hands-on cultural exchanges, encouraging visitors to engage deeply with the theme of Home.
HOME highlights the ethical significance of culture and sustainability, proposing that materials can be returned to Country, ensuring a minimal environmental impact and challenging the status quo of exhibition practices. This approach reinforces Country as foundational to the Biennale themes of Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective and a core driver of architectural innovation. Positioned to challenge conventional architectural paradigms, the exhibition aims to leave a lasting legacy that integrates Indigenous knowledge and practices, inspiring future generations of architects to embrace a culturally and environmentally sustainable approach to the built environment.
The Venice Architecture Biennale, the premier global platform for architectural innovation, presents partners with a unique opportunity to align with a prestigious international event that attracts a global audience of professionals, decision-makers, and design enthusiasts.
This exhibit comes at a critical moment in Australia’s history, following the Referendum No Vote on the Uluru Statement from the Heart. HOME serves as a timely and profound response, inviting a deeper understanding of First Nations perspectives and reinforcing the importance of truth-telling and cultural exchange.
To bring this vision to life, we are seeking your partnership. Sponsoring the Australia Pavilion will support the design team as they execute a dynamic public program in Venice and achieve their mission of sharing First Nations perspectives with the world. Moreover, your sponsorship will contribute to the Institute’s plans for a national display of the exhibition in 2026, ensuring its impact continues beyond Venice.
Dr Michael Mossman is a Kuku Yalanji man who lectures and researches at the University of Sydney School of Architecture Design and Planning. He is a registered architect who champions Country and First Nations cultures as agents for structural change in the broader architectural profession at educational, practice and policy levels. As co-lead creative director, Michael will lead logistics + dialogue around public engagement + culture + architecture
Jack Gillmer-Lilley (Worimi & Biripi Guri) is an associate and First Nations lead at SJB. Interested in the intersection of cultural knowledge systems and the built environment, he seeks to enable Country as co- designer and collaborator of narrative and architectural approach to place. As co-lead creative director, Jack will lead logistics + dialogue around public engagement + culture +architecture.
Emily McDaniel is a Sydney-based independent curator, writer and educator from the Kalari Clan of the Wiradjuri Nation in central New South Wales. She consults on curatorship, engagement and interpretation in the public domain, the museums and galleries sector and media. As co-lead Creative Director, Emily will lead logistics + dialogue around public engagement + culture + curatorial art practices.
The title of the Biennale Architettura 2025 is Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. Curated by the architect and engineer Carlo Ratti, the 19th International Architecture Exhibition will be about the built environment and the many disciplines that shape it. Architecture is at the centre – but not alone. It is part of an extended sphere that integrates art, engineering, biology, data science, social and political sciences, planetary systems sciences, and other disciplines – linking each and all of them to the materiality of urban space.
The Biennale is open to the public Saturday, 10 May – Sunday, 23 November 2025
Professor of Architecture, Head of School School of Architecture and Design, University of Tasmania
Associate Professor Indigenous and Australian Studies, Flinders University. Unbound Collective
Expressions of Interest for Creative Director’s have closed.
The Creative Director’s role is solely focused on the curation of the Exhibition, with the formal, social and operational aspects being the responsibility of the Institute management team.
The exhibition is required to reflect the overall 2023 Venice Biennale theme and showcases Australian architectural thinking, culture and design, communicating a rich and engaging story about architecture and the Australian built environment to an international audience.
For 2023, the Venice Biennale Committee seeks a powerful idea that reveals what is particular, but also prescient, about Australian architecture. A successful concept will be captivating, thought-provoking and inspirational. Consideration should also be given to the curated exhibition’s journey post-Venice and its adaptability to tour nationally across Australia once the exhibition closes in Venice.
The Venie Biennale Committee received 17 expressions of interest with some truly exceptional concepts submitted.
The Committee has short listed three projects which you can explore below.
In September 2022, each of the shortlisted creative director teams will go through an interview process.
The winner will be formally announced in October 2023.
Your submission needs to be in PDF format, maximum of five A4 pages.
CLOSING DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS
5.00pm AEST on Friday, 15 July 2022
Submissions can be emailed to venice.biennale@architecture.com.au
The Institute invites expressions of interest from students and members that would like to volunteer at the Australia Pavilion at the 18th Venice Biennale.
Whilst the 2023 exhibition will be invigilated by full-time, on-the-ground staff, our Venice team welcome volunteers who wish to gain experience in international invigilation. If you plan on visiting Venice between 20 May 20 and 26 November 2023, and would like to know more about how you can get involved, please express your interest by completing the form below.
Please note: this is an unpaid, volunteer opportunity. All applicants are required to complete an application form and provide references. Selection of volunteers is at the discretion of the Institute and the unsettling Queenstown team.
Originally conceived for exhibition at the subsequently postponed 2020 iteration of the Biennale in Venice, Inbetween looks beyond Australia’s borders and invites the neighbouring nations of the Pacific to join the exhibition, leveraging Australia’s fortunate position as one of only 29 countries with a permanent pavilion to platform architecture and cultures that may have less international exposure. The film brings together 20 projects from across Australia, Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia to amplify the important role architecture can play in retaining and rediscovering lost cultural knowledge.
Tristan said: “We’re privileged to be one of the few countries that have a pavilion in the Giardini in Venice so in the context of this year’s overarching Biennale theme, which asks “How will we live together?”, we thought of sharing our platform with countries whose architecture and cultures have much less exposure as a way of breaking down that privilege. This ended up being a way of reaching beyond our shores to embrace people and cultures who have a shared experience and created a much richer exhibition.”
Showcasing projects from remote, regional, and metropolitan locations – every drawing, photograph or snippet of footage collated in the film offers insight into how architects are creating new protocols for better design outcomes through meaningful co-design processes. “Architects understand the value of engaging with deeper connections to Country. Inbetween explores different approaches, across a variety of architectural typologies and scales, but they are all working to a shared agenda. There’s a consistency of thinking and an attitude that shows we’re reaching a level of cultural maturity within the built environment disciplines where we can begin to enable cultural collaboration and exchange.” reflects Jefa.
Inbetween premiered on Thursday 20 May, and will be exhibited this year throughout Australia, across the Pacific region and more broadly, as well as online. “Not being tied to the space in Venice has meant that we’ve been able to create something that can be experienced by a much larger audience. The great thing about the new format is that essentially anyone can access it and it has longevity beyond the dates of the Biennale.” explains Tristan. “This project isn’t a collection of artefacts; it’s forward looking and presents the innovative potential in learning from Indigenous methods and ideas. Embedding practices and knowledge that has been around for more than 60000 years into the way we design buildings creates opportunities for a new kind of architecture that is better for people, cities and the environment.”
“We always wanted to invite people on a journey. The film creates an immersive experience that engages the senses so it’s not simply about the visuals but also the connection to soundscapes and the hearing of language, creating a visceral connection to Country. In the international realm there are still stereotypes around how people understand Australia so we wanted to demonstrate richness and diversity – the different contexts and landscapes that exist in Australia, and more broadly in our region, and how architecture responds to that” Said Jefa.
Jefa has spent over two decades exploring the intersection of engagement, Indigeneity and the built environment, as both a Director of Greenaway Architects and as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne. Jefa’s practice experience spans cultural, educational, and precinct scaled projects demonstrating the capacity for architecture to become an enabler towards a valued contribution to society. His methodology seeks to embed Indigenous knowledge systems and design thinking, which interrogates an ethical position which foregrounds our responsibilities to the environment. Jefa shares a proud Wailwan/Kamilaroi and German heritage and is one of a handful of registered Indigenous architects in private practice in Australia.
An awarded architect and SJB Director whose innovative thinking and bold solutions are connected to positive wellbeing outcomes and environmental benefits. His projects have won awards with reference to innovation, clarity of message and capacity to improve the health and experience of users. Tristan’s work promotes a more humanity-based outcome and a belief in architecture’s ability to make positive change to society. Experience as an artist has coloured his perspective on design; for example, encouraging hand drawing and sketching in the studio – a reminder of the connection between human-made design processes, and the built environment.
Architecture has the power to build connections and understanding between First Nations cultures in Australia, the Pacific region and beyond. This is the compelling concept behind In|between, the Australian exhibition of the 2020 Venice International Architecture Biennale.
Creative Directors Tristan Wong and Jefa Greenaway, along with Tim Ross, Elizabeth Grant, Aaron Puls and Jordyn Milliken, will demonstrate the potency of design collaboration to create culturally appropriate and meaningful architecture, while also highlighting the connections between First Nations people across the Australasian region.
Embracing Australia’s diversity, its rich Indigenous heritage and multiplicity of languages, In | between will showcase a collection of architectural projects from Australia and the Pacific region and explore how design can be a powerful form of communication that can evocatively represent Indigenous and non-Indigenous narratives.
We raise the international profile of Australian architecture through active participation in global events such as the Venice Architecture Biennale – the world’s most prestigious celebration of the practice.
Through the Biennale, we present Australia’s contribution to world architecture before an international audience of influential architects, designers, urban planners and critics. In turn, we also encourage the local and international professional community to continue finding ways to develop a more efficient and sustainable built environment for the future.
The Venice Architecture Biennale has made the decision to postpone the 2020 event due to the current public health emergency.
Support Australia in Venice and be a part of something big as we seek to advance architecture through international dialogue, answering the call – The Laboratory of the Future
Network, build connections and engage with the local and global architecture and design community and be recognised as a leader with acknowledgement of support throughout Australia’s marketing campaign and on the ground in Venice.
Join Network Venice now and maximise your VIP benefits.
For more information please contact Tamara Smith, National Commercial and Business Development Lead at tamara.smith@architecture.com.au.
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The 17th International Architecture Exhibition will be curated by architect and scholar Hashim Sarkis with the theme How will we live together?
‘The world is putting new challenges in front of architecture. I look forward to working with participating architects from around the world to imagine together how we are going to rise to these challenges.’ – Hashim Sarkis.
The Venice Architecture Biennale has made the decision to postpone the 2020 event due to the current public health emergency. The Vernissage preview will now be held on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 August, and the exhibition will run from 29 August until 29 November (instead of 23 May until 29 November).
The Australian Institute of Architects respects this decision as the health and safety of our members, partners and staff, as well as our international colleagues and friends, is our main priority. We look forward to presenting the Australian pavilion alongside the creative team in August.
We will update this page soon with further information.
Anthony Coupe LFRAIA, Julian Worrall RAIA, Emily Paech, Ali Gumillya Baker and Dr Sarah Rhodes
Australia’s identity is built on a double rupture: the expropriation of First Peoples’ lands; and the displacement of settler populations from their ancestral motherlands. The country’s wealth is based on an extractive relation to nature, regarding it as a standing reserve for exploitation. A dominion within the Commonwealth, Australia’s statehood is bound to the British Crown. This structure of relations to land, people, and nature are inscribed in the patterns of its settlements, its architecture the spatial language of this inscription.
Queenstown’ is the name we give to this pattern of relations. At the end of the second Elizabethan Age, as the voice of First Peoples calls for reckoning, and with planetary urgencies pressing, the settled configuration of this contested inheritance is under question. Queenstown is being unsettled. This exhibition explores and participates in this unsettling, weaving elements from real places and gleanings from current architectural intelligence in search of ingredients to contribute to Venice’s Laboratory of the Future.
Jefa Greenway and Tristan Wong
Inbetween premiered on Thursday 20 May, and will be exhibited this year throughout Australia, across the Pacific region and more broadly, as well as online. “Not being tied to the space in Venice has meant that we’ve been able to create something that can be experienced by a much larger audience. The great thing about the new format is that essentially anyone can access it and it has longevity beyond the dates of the Biennale.” explains Tristan. “This project isn’t a collection of artefacts; it’s forward looking and presents the innovative potential in learning from Indigenous methods and ideas. Embedding practices and knowledge that has been around for more than 60000 years into the way we design buildings creates opportunities for a new kind of architecture that is better for people, cities and the environment.”
Mauro Baracco, Louise Wright with Linda Tegg
Repair focused on Australian architecture that integrates built and natural systems to effect repair of the environment, and in so doing, mend or improve other societal, economic, and cultural conditions.
On entering the Pavilion, visitors found over 10,000 native Australian grassland plants arranged inside and outside of the Pavilion’s granite structure. This field of vegetation, titled Grasslands, allowed visitors to enter a physical dialogue between architecture and the endangered plant community – with just one percent of these threatened species left in their native Australian environment.
Amelia Holliday, Isabelle Toland (Aileen Sage) and Michelle Tabet
Using the pool as a lens through which to explore Australian cultural identity, the Australia Pavilion was transformed through the use of light, scent, sound, reflection and perspective to create a series of perceptual illusions within a designed landscape.
Eight prominent cultural leaders from various fields were selected to share their personal stories, using the device of the pool as a platform to explore the relationship between architecture and Australian cultural identity. These included Olympic gold medal winning swimmers Ian Thorpe and Shane Gould, environmentalist and 2007 Australian of the Year Tim Flannery, fashion designers Romance Was Born, writer of best-selling book The Slap Christos Tsiolkas, winner of the 2012 Miles Franklin Prize Anna Funder, Indigenous art curator Hetti Perkins and Australian rock-musician Paul Kelly.
The aim of the exhibition was to step outside the architect-to-architect discourse to show how a familiar, common object, the pool, is in fact pregnant with cultural significance, it is both artefact and catalyst of change. The Pool is about public space as a vital component to society and shows the many ways in which its public character is interpreted and occupied.
felix._Giles_Anderson+Goad
Augmented Australia provided a virtual journey through 23 of Australia’s most intriguing unbuilt projects through the use of a dedicated app.
Augmented Australia’s virtual experience began under a temporary Cloud Space, where display images of each project automatically triggered three-dimensional (3D) augmented models, animations and interviews when viewed through the app. Including a 1:1 scale virtual model of the new Australia Pavilion by Denton Corker Marshall overlaid on its construction site.
The exhibition then extended beyond the Giardini with real-world scale augmented models of each unbuilt project geographically positioned in various locations around Venice, marking the largest exhibition of its kind ever seen.
Anthony Burke, Gerard Reinmuth, with TOKO concept design
Formations provided a cross-section of the state of Australian architecture and singled out thirty-three unique practice structures corresponding to its agenda. The project was essentially made up of two components: the exhibition, with the unassuming Australia pavilion as its nucleus, and an accompanying catalogue. Of the total thirty-three surveyed practices, the pavilion exhibited six.
The optimism and pluralist sensibility of Formations was laudable. Indeed, it may soon be the case that, as Ole Bouman says, “architecture has become a universal access code, a mother key that may open countless doors in culture and in society.” However, in the meantime, for any current student or young practitioner of a discipline and body of knowledge in turmoil, the need for professional (role) models is acute. The emancipatory bent of Formations is more timely than ever.
John Gollings and Ivan Rijavec
Now and When explored the challenges facing our cities, engaging in timely issues that included sustainability, urban sprawl and density.
The ‘NOW’ component featured aerial views of Australian urban landscapes, including Melbourne, Sydney and Surfers Paradise, contrasted with giant mining pits at Kalgoorlie and Mt Newman by renowned architectural photographer John Gollings. The ‘WHEN’ component, overseen by Ivan Rijavec and produced by FloodSlicer, featured a sequence of ideas from 17 architectural collaborations of possible future urban spaces, including floating or submerged cities, or desert spaces.
Now and When exhibited on a completely new form of 3D stereoscopic technology, which goes beyond the latest cinematic release. Visitors were able to move around these urban scenes and experience the urbanised worlds from different perspectives.
Neil Durbach, Vince Frost, Wendy Lewin, Kerstin Thompson and Gary Warner
Abundant Australia explored the astonishing ability of Australian architects to blend new influences, dramatic landscapes and Australia’s unique multicultural society. Featuring over 140 architectural models of both domestic and commercial buildings from prominent Australian architects, including Ashton Raggatt McDougall, Denton Corker Marshall and Iredale Pedersen Hook, the exhibition revealed an architecture that is distinctly Australian.
Australia is one of 29 countries to be granted a permanent exhibition site within the Giardini della Biennale. In 2015, the Australia Council for the Arts unveiled Australia’s new permanent pavilion designed by Denton Corker Marshall. This new pavilion replaced a temporary exhibition space designed by Philip Cox in 1988, in use until 2013.
We gratefully acknowledge the Australia Council for the Arts for the use of the Australia Pavilion during the biennial architecture exhibition.
Janet Holmes a Court AC
Penelope Seidler
Anita Belgiorno-Nettis AM
Luca Belgiorno-Nettis AM
The Australian Institute of Architects acknowledges First Nations peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies of the continent now called Australia.
We express our gratitude to their Elders and Knowledge Holders whose wisdom, actions and knowledge have kept culture alive.
We recognise First Nations peoples as the first architects and builders. We appreciate their continuing work on Country from pre-invasion times to contemporary First Nations architects, and respect their rights to continue to care for Country.
