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Dedicated to the world of bees, the pavilion unEarthed / Second Nature / PolliNATION is one of the eleven collateral events of the 19th. International Architecture Exhibition, entitled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., curated by Carlo Ratti and organized by La Biennale di Venezia. The unEarthed / Second Nature / PolliNATION project, created by students and faculty of the Virginia Tech Honors College together with Cloud 9 Architecture, under the curatorship of Enric Ruiz Geli and Anne-Lise Velez, will be open to the public from May 10 to Nov. 23, 2025 at the Giardini della Marinaressa.
The inaugural symposium, moderated by Aron Betsky, will be held on the afternoon of Friday, May 9, from 2 to 6 p.m., with the participation of twelve participants from around the world, who will bring their own perspective and experience with creating work that intertwines architecture with both human made and natural systems to a series of hour-long discussions.
Speakers will include: 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.
unEarthed is a metaphor for dynamic excavation, revealing the hidden processes, collaborations, and transformative learning that drives multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach, which has always been the hallmark of the Virginia Tech Honors College.
Second Nature reflects the work of students addressing the themes of the Architecture Biennale 2025 and highlights the importance of pollinators in the Venetian ecosystem, building from a history of wetland and harbor apiculture.
Finally, PolliNATION reflects the hope that the ideas of preservation and restoration expressed by the pavilion will spread like a pollen, creating a vast community with a collective environmental consciousness.
>>> Find out about the “Beyond the Prize” event, scheduled for the morning of March 9 at Ocean Space
