In Italy, the board of directors of the La Biennale di Venezia announced today that Carlo Ratti will curate the 19th International Architecture Exhibition taking place in 2025. The appointment was recommended by President Robert Cicutto, in agreement with Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of the La Biennale di Venezia for the four-year term between 2024 and 2027.

“We architects like to think we are smart, but real intelligence is everywhere,” Ratti said in a statement. “The disembodied ingenuity of evolution, the growing power of computers, and the collective wisdom of the crowd. To face a burning world, architecture must harness all the intelligence around us. I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to curate the Biennale Architettura 2025.”

Oscillating between practice and academia, Ratti has built a reputation as a vanguard thinker at the intersection of design and technology. At MIT, where Ratti completed his PhD, he runs the Senseable City Lab. He’s been dubbed by Bloomberg as the “Sensory City Philosopher.” Ratti also serves as co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization.

With locations in Turin, London, and New York City, Ratti’s office, Carlo Ratti Associatti (CRA), is regarded as a pioneer in the field. Alongside Antoine Picon, Ratti authored Atlas of the Senseable City, a volume “which explores how the growth of digital mapping, spurred by sensing technologies, is affecting cities and daily lives.”

To date, Ratti has curated exhibitions at MAXXI in Rome, BMW Guggenheim Pavilion in Berlin, Expo 2015 in Milan, 2021 Porto Design Biennale, and more. Previously, he was also a program director at the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture, and Design in Moscow.

Ratti’s selection comes after Lesley Lokko’s curatorship at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition. The announcement follows the rather controversial appointment by Italy’s cultural ministry of far-right wing author Pietrangelo Buttafuoco as the Venice Biennale’s president. Buttafuoco got the job this year, and was backed by Italy’s far-right leader Giorgia Meloni.

The board of directors also announced the official dates of the 19^th International Architecture Exhibition. It will be held from May 24 to November 23, 2025. There will be a pre-opening between May 22–23.