The Pavilion of Mexico has announced details, theme, and curator for the upcoming exhibition at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale in Italy.

The project, titled Chinampa Veneta, chosen by the Ministry of Culture and the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale encourages contemplation on how we live, work, and create the world we share in light of the global ecological crisis.

Collage of the Chinampa Veneta, 2025, Collage over an image of Teatro del Mondo from Aldo Rossi. Image © Chinampa Veneta

The Mesoamerican Chinampas agricultural system, which is still in use in Xochimilco, a historic lake habitat south of Mexico City, is the starting point of Chinampa Veneta. In the framework of La Biennale, this age-old knowledge—which combines technique, infrastructure, and landscape—is recreated, enlivening a living space in a city that is symbolic.

The Chinampa system's components are all equally vital and create symbiotic interactions that support life, absorb carbon, clean water, and provide food and oxygen. Chinampas provide us with a way forward in a world that is on the verge of ecological disaster. 

Gran Tenochtitlan in 1519, Luis Covarrubias, Oil on canvas, 1964, Museo Nacional de Antropología and Aerial view of the Venetian lagoon, digital image, 365_visuals/Shutterstock.com. Image © Chinampa Veneta

In contrast to modernity, which frantically attempts to control them, the Chinampas were born out of an archaic philosophy that saw humans as an active participant in the natural cycles of existence. We have seen firsthand how quickly productive ecosystems may be consumed by urban expansion in both Xochimilco and Venice, both of which were designated World Heritage Sites in 1987.

A number of enactments make up Chinampa Veneta. One of them, which represents a system of chinampas, is situated inside the Arsenale. Every chinampa depicts a distinct stage of their development. A chinampa is regenerated from a chapin, a tiny cube of nutrient-rich mud that contains a seed, to start the enactment. 

Colectivo Chinampa Veneta: Estudio Ignacio Urquiza y Ana Paula de Alba, Estudio María Marín de Buen, ILWT, Locus, Lucio Usobiaga Hegewisch & Nathalia Muguet, Pedro&Juana. Aldo Urban, Ana Paula de Alba, Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo, Andrea Mejía, Diego Manzano, Emilio M. Frausto, Federico de Antuñano, Ignacio Urquiza Seoane, Isabel Brocado, Jachen Schleich, Javiera Elicer, Lucio Usobiaga Hegewisch, Lucero Chaires, María Marín de Buen, Martina Duque, Mecky Reuss, Michela Lostia di Santa Sofia, Miguel Ángel Vega Ruiz, Nathalia Muguet, Paulina García Ortíz, Rodrigo Huesca, Sana Frini, Santiago Sitten, Shantal Gabriela Haddad Gómez, Xavier Delgado González, Yavanna Latapí

The main character is a living chinampa, which is distinct from its Mexican ancestors. It is planted with the traditional Mesoamerican polyculture system, the milpa, and an agroforestry system used in the Veneto, la vite maritata, in which the vine grows entwined with the trees.

Similar to Aldo Rossi's Teatro del Mondo, which he designed as a fulcrum between architecture and the imagined that may create bridges between worlds, another enactment floats figuratively in the Venetian Lagoon. By presenting itself in a proudly ancestral, organic, and natural manner in front of Venice's built environment, the theater on this occasion becomes the Chinampa del Mondo, forging a new connection between two lake cities whose water histories reflect a political struggle for territory and drinking water.

Xochimilco, 2025. Image © Yvonne Venegas

Arriving in Venice, Chinampa Veneta reminds us that the health of our soil has a direct impact on our collective well-being and challenges us to envision design processes that reintegrate life cycles, thereby removing the built environment's resistance to nature.

Chinampas force us to stop and consider the past in a world that is constantly expanding and changing. As an inventive idea that broadens the concept of architectural design towards a symbiotic process that co-designs with the ecosystem, with the natural environment, and in a collective manner, Chinampa Veneta was chosen by the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature.

Xochimilco, 2025. Image © Yvonne Venegas

The Pavilion of Mexico will be open from May 10 to November 23, 2025, and is housed in the former El Arsenale naval installation. The opening will take place on May 8 at 5:15 p.m Venice time.

Farmers from Xochimilco and Venice will first discuss their experiences with their respective regions, farming methods, and connections to regenerative agriculture.

Xochimilco, 2025. Image © Uta Gleiser

Xochimilco, 2025. Image © Uta Gleiser

Xochimilco, 2025. Image © Uta Gleiser

Xochimilco, 2025. Image © Uta Gleiser

Xochimilco, 2025. Image © Uta Gleiser

The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale will take place from May 10 to November 23 November 2025 at the Giardini, the Arsenale and various venues in Venice, Italy. 

Besides Mexico's contribution, other contributions at the Venice Architecture Biennale include the Pavilion Of The Republic Of Kosovo's exhibition Lulebora nuk çel më, Polish Pavilion's exhibition Lares and Penates: On Building a Sense of Security in Architecture, Swiss Pavilion's Endgültige Form wird von der Architektin am Bau bestimmt, Iceland's exhibition Lavaforming, Estonia's Let Me Warm You exhibition, the Romanian Pavilion's "Human Scale" exhibition, the Luxembourg Pavilion's Sonic Investigations exhibition, the Albanian Pavilion's "Building Architecture Culture" exhibition, the Turkey Pavilion's "Grounded" exhibition, the Pavilion of the United Arab Emirates's "Pressure Cooker" exhibition, the Finland Pavilion's "The Pavilion – Architecture of Stewardship" exhibition. 

Find out all exhibition news on WAC's Venice Architecture Biennale page. 

Exhibition facts

Project name: Chinampa Veneta

Comissioner: José María Bilbao Rodríguez

Colectivo Chinampa Veneta: Estudio Ignacio Urquiza y Ana Paula de Alba, Estudio María Marín de Buen, ILWT, Locus, Lucio Usobiaga Hegewisch & Nathalia Muguet, Pedro&Juana

Aldo Urban, Ana Paula de Alba, Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo, Andrea Mejía, Diego Manzano, Emilio M. Frausto, Federico de Antuñano, Ignacio Urquiza Seoane, Isabel Brocado, Jachen Schleich, Javiera Elicer, Lucio Usobiaga Hegewisch, Lucero Chaires, María Marín de Buen, Martina Duque, Mecky Reuss, Michela Lostia di Santa Sofia, Miguel Ángel Vega Ruiz, Nathalia Muguet, Paulina García Ortíz, Rodrigo Huesca, Sana Frini, Santiago Sitten, Shantal Gabriela Haddad Gómez, Xavier Delgado González, Yavanna Latapí.

The top image in the article: Collage of the Chinampa Veneta, 2025, Collage over an image of Teatro del Mondo from Aldo Rossi, © Chinampa Veneta.

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