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The Kingdom of Bahrain won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the Biennale Architettura 2025 with its Heatwave pavilion at the Arsenale, curated by Andrea Faraguna, while the Golden Lion for Best Participation went to the Canal Café project, also presented at the Arsenale by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Natural Systems Utilities, SODAI, Aaron Betsky and Davide Oldani.
The Silver Lion for Promising Participation was awarded to the project Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500 by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, set up at the Corderie dell'Arsenale.
As announced in April, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement was awarded to philosopher Donna Haraway, while the Special Golden Lion for Memory was given to architect Italo Rota, who died last year.
The Kingdom of Bahrain's pavilion, titled Heatwave, offers a concrete proposal for dealing with extreme heat conditions in response to the need to face rising temperatures due to climate change.
The Pavilion offers viable proposal for extreme heat conditions. As the designers explain, "Architecture must address the dual challenges of environmental resilience and sustainability. The ingenious solution can be deployed in public spaces and in locations where people must live and work outdoors in conditions of extreme heat. The pavilion uses traditional methods of passive cooling typical of the region and reminiscence of wind towers and shaded courtyards".
In parte bar e in parte laboratorio, Canal Café attinge l’acqua dalla laguna dell’Arsenale per preparare il caffé, grazie a un sistema ibrido di depurazione naturale-artificiale che accelera gli effetti depurativi delle zone umide di marea, rendendo potabile l’acqua del canale. Il sistema idrico è costantemente monitorato, testato e mantenuto per garantire un approvvigionamento continuo di acqua sicura e pulita.
Canal Café is a demonstration of how the city of Venice can be a laboratory to speculate how to live on the water, while offering a contribution to the public space of Venice. It also invites future speculation about the lagoon and other lagoons. It also represents an important parallel track in the DS+R’s practice since the very start—one rich in transdisciplinary experimentation. We also acknowledge the extraordinary persistence of the Canal Cafè project, which started almost 20 years ago. It’s an example that Biennale can be a long duration project and go far beyond the event.
The installation Calculating Empires traces the technological patterns of colonialism, militarization, automation, and confinement since the 1500s to show how these forces continue to be dominant and how they could be dismantled. In its 24m length, it traces the history of computation, from al-Khwarizmi to deep neural networks, with a rich historical fabric to better understand the technological present.
The importance of Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler’s Calculating Empires: a genealogy of technology and power since 1500 is to make visible the invisible both in space and in time. This large scale visual manifesto shows the digital and social infrastructures co-evolving over centuries. Now more than ever understanding the entanglements of power and technology – colonialism, militarization, automation and enclosure. It offers a rich history of technology today. This extraordinary diagram is a device to better understand our present and build alternative futures.
The International Jury of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia - composed of Hans Ulrich Obrist (president), Paola Antonelli, and Mpho Matsipa - also awarded four special mentions. 
Great Britain Pavilion, GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair. © Marco Zorzanello, courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
Two special mentions have been awarded to the following National Participations: the Holy See Pavilion, entitled Opera Aperta, located in the Complex of Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, and curated by Marina Otero Verzier and Giovanna Zabotti in collaboration with Tatiana Bilbao Estudio and MAIO Architects, and the Great Britain Pavilion, entitled GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair and set up at the Gardens, curated by Owen Hopkins, Kathryn Yusoff, Kabage Karanja and Stella Mutegi, with exhibitions by cave_bureau, Palestine Regeneration Team (PART), Mae Ling Lokko & Gustavo Crembil, Thandi Loewenso.
Finally, two special mentions were awarded to the following participations: Alternative Urbanism: The Self-Organized Markets of Lagos by Tosin Oshinowo, and Elephant Chapel by Boonserm Premthada, both at the Corderie dell'Arsenale.
>>> Discover the Pavilion presented by USA (Porch) and China (Co-Exist)
Cover Image: Canal Café. © Marco Zorzanello, courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
