The exhibition unEarthed / Second Nature / PolliNATION will be displayed at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Architecture Biennale.

On Wednesday, May 7, from 5 to 6 p.m., 25 students from Virginia Tech's Honors College will present the event in Giardini della Marinaressa, Riva dei Sette Martiri, with curators Dr. Enric Ruiz Geli and Dr. Anne-Lise Velez. 

Venice's inhabitants have long learned environmental adaptation and utilizing the wetlands' biodiversity. The finding of an image showing two Venetian beekeepers relocating their hives in boats during a lagoon flood was a pivotal point in the development of this project. The core of these traditions is what will return us to sustainability, and it is these traditions that offer a harmony between man and nature.

Render-unEarthed/second nature/polliNATION, by Honors student Failenn Aselta

"Carlo Ratti, curator of the Biennale Architettura 2025, describes the exhibition as positioning architects as “mutagens”," said the team. 

"Our mission is to not only reestablish a positive coexistence between humans and nature, but to establish a foundation for a future that nurtures. We have created an onsite project that will achieve our goals by utilizing the organic agents of pollination and mutation – an exchange that, through interspecies architecture, will promote fertility that births innovation."

With an emphasis on developing collective intelligence across fields and experiences through group projects that uncover novel concepts and methods, the Virginia Tech Honors College is a pioneer in transdisciplinary education.

Left to right, Designer Kevin Jones and Curator Enric Ruiz Geli. Photography by Kristie Lea

UnEarthed is a metaphor for dynamic excavation, exposing the covert procedures, teamwork, and life-changing education that propel transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary endeavors. The subject, which has its roots in the work of the VT Honors College, aims to uncover the layers of discovery that provide transformative solutions for both individuals and society.

The multidisciplinary Cloud 9 studio in Barcelona is at the forefront of a green agenda that explores pilot projects for scenarios of global warming. As a type of interspecies architecture, the ephemeral building we will be showcasing at the Biennale Architettura 2025 creates an exhibiting environment that is pollinator-centered rather than human-centered.

Second Nature is a play on words that stand for two major goals we want to achieve. One is that by introducing over 60 plant species and more than ten pollinators throughout the show, the garden area will flourish and grow, establishing a "Second Nature" in Venice.

Building on a history of wetland and harbor apiculture, students engage the Biennale Architettura 2025 themes for "Second Nature," emphasizing the role of pollinators in the Venetian ecosystem. 

Photograph from magazine L’ Apicoltore Moderno (“The Modern Beekeeper”) featured in 1938. Image © Venice Gardens Foundation

In order to develop projects that are action-oriented and include the community, students in "Sustainability and Environmental Justice Frameworks" addressed stakeholders in justice concerns around nuclear energy generation and food security. A series of insightful and visually striking posters addressing significant urban development concerns, like design districts, were produced by "Cities and Social Change."

SuperStudio produced a children’s novel focused on the healthcare system and the “Green New Deal”, a “Community Wealth Building” (CWB) project in partnership with the Universities at Shady Grove to help scaffold implementation of CWB based on a handbook created from institutional goals, and “Culture Sculptures”, focused on student representations of their own cultures and relationships between their conceptions of culture.

While "Farms of the Future-Cobots" offers a solution to promote silvopasture, enabling healthier farm environments and reduced farmer workloads using a mobile monitoring system, "Knowledge Unchained" works with the Virginia prison system to provide grant-supported higher education access to incarcerated individuals while supporting universities facing enrollment declines. 

Exploded View of Pavillion Render by Cloud 9 Mila Moskalenko

Additionally, "Hypnos" is investigating the effects of sleep deprivation on astronauts in space and is developing a sleep module, Selene, which consists of five separate sleep capsules. In order to reduce airline revenue loss while preserving user safety and dignity, "Chairs in the air" designed wheelchair spaces and adjustable chairs for use in aircraft cabins.

In the structure at Giardini della Marinaressa and inside the Palazzo Bembo, there will also be displayed the following Cloud 9 projects: ME WE, Figueres (Spain), Villa Accretion, Malibu (United States of America), El Teatre dels Somnis, Caldetes (Spain), CaixaForum Valencia (Spain), DaeSang Park, Changwon, (South Korea), H108 project, Taipei (Taiwan), El Bulli Foundation, Cap de Creus (Spain), Untitled, Cala Canyelles (Spain) and The Watermill Center, New York (United States of America).

The team said that "we hope that through our work at the Biennale Architettura 2025, our ideas of preservation and restoration will spread like pollen, creating a vast community with a collective environmental consciousness. This community is the PolliNATION."

Drawing of unEarthed/Second Nature/polliNATION, by Honors student Ivan Leung

Symposium

Cloud 9 Architecture has invited Aaron Betsky to serve as the moderator of a symposium to begin the discussion about unEarthed, Second Nature, PolliNATION. The conference will explore the relationship between architecture, nature, and science and generate ideas about what truly organic architecture might be. 

During a series of one-hour talks, twelve participants from around the globe will share their unique perspectives in producing work that integrates architecture with both natural and man-made systems.

Speakers include Carlo Ratti, curator of the Biennale Architettura 2025; Kevin Jones, VT Honors College; Elizabeth Diller, Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Vicente Guallart, Urbanitree; Summer Islam, Material Cultures; Olalekan Jeyifous, Brooklyn- based Artist/Designer; Mitchell Joachim, Terreform 1; Maria Lisogorskaya, Assemble; Ferdinand Ludwig, Baubotanik; Mireia Luzarraga, TAKK; Qingyun Ma, Mada s.p.a.m.; Claudia Pasquero, Ecologic Studio; and, Enric Ruiz Geli, Cloud 9 Architecture. 

Registration can be made from here.

The top image in the article: Render of Pavillion unEarthed/second nature/ polliNATION, by Honors student Failenn Aselta.

> via Virginia Tech Honors College

earth earthed exhibition pavilion Venice Architecture Biennale