Since it first began in 1980, the Venice Biennale of Architecture has always been at the cutting edge. Then, the event made waves for being among the first to use unused industrial sites and structures to exhibit art and culture—something that is now common practice and offers a provocative juxtaposition between the exhibition space and the art/installations. Now, the 19th edition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture is continuing that avant-garde trend by platforming a number of innovative architectural projects that rely on advanced fabrication techniques, like 3D printing.
We’ve been covering the various projects featured at the Venice Biennale of Architecture since the months-long even launched in May. And now, for the sake of clarity and impact, we want to present them all here to emphasize just how much 3D printing is playing a role at this year’s event—an indication of how important the technology is becoming in the broader architecture field. The inclusion of several 3D printing-enabled projects also fits well with the biennale’s theme, which was selected by the event’s curator, architect and engineer Carlo Ratti. This theme is centered on “harnessing the intelligence around us” for architecture in order to “face a burning world.”
Picoplanktonics at the Canadian Pavilion
(Photo: Valentina Mori)
Picoplanktonics was developed by the Living Room Collective, a multidisciplinary group of architects, scientists, artists and educators who have combining architecture, biology and digital fabrication in this unusual project. This collective has developed 3D printed living structures, which are now on show (and growing) at the Canadian Pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale.
The 3D printed structures themselves are embedded with live cyanobacteria, a type of bacteria also known as blue-green algae that can be used for dual carbon sequestration. In the right conditions, the embedded structures are able to grow—which visitors to the biennale can witness first hand. The Picoplanktonics exhibition is particularly notable for featuring the largest living material structures made using robotic fabrication. One structure, for instance, measures over three meters in height, and can capture up to 18kg of CO2 a year (equal to that of a 20-year-old pine tree).
The overall aim of the project is to demonstrate how organic systems and materials can transform architecture, giving it a living, regenerative nature—all while having a positive environmental impact.
Anti-Ruin at the Turkish Pavilion
(Photo: Lloyd Lee)
Anti-Ruin is a 3D printed installation developed by OZRUH, a London-based architecture and design studio, in cooperation with ETH Zurich and formDP, a design-led structural engineering office. On display at the Turkish Pavilion, the installation reimagines a stone gate structure, leveraging modular 3D printed modules to create an adaptable form that can change and evolve as required. The general philosophy driving the interesting project is to imagine a future in which architecture evolves rather than decays.
The Anti-Ruin structure is, in its current form, a three-meter-tall gate-like structure that is made from 3D printed blocks. These blocks, made from marble dust, an industrial byproduct, were printed using a binder jetting technology developed by ETH Zurich’s Dr. Pietro Odaglia. The technology could also be compatible with other recycled building materials, such as crushed brick or demolition waste.
“At its core, Anti-Ruin departs from architecture’s conventional fixation on completeness, where structures are either complete or incomplete,” said OZRUH. “Within this binary logic, unfinished constructions and ruins lack incremental functionality,. In contrast, Anti-Ruin merges top-down intention with bottom-up growth, ensuring that each phase remains meaningful, functional, and always complete.”
Duality in the Giardini della Marinaressa
TU Eindhoven’s Cristina Nan next to the Duality column (Photo: Lloyd Lee)
Another installation that highlights the innovative capabilities of 3D printing at the Venice Biennale of Architecture is Duality, an experimental sculpture made from colored 3D printed concrete, which fits into the larger “Time.Space.Existence.” exhibition. The piece, developed by assistant professor Cristina Nan from TU Eindhoven and architect Mattia Zucco, also brought on help from Dutch 3D printing company Vertico and German chemical company Lanxess, which provided the pigments to color the concrete material.
Manufacturing on Demand
The sculpture reimagines the classical column, with a bulging vertical form that gives the impression of opening up to reveal an interior core. The outer layers of the column are pigmented black using a black iron oxide and the internal core is a red/copper color, achieved using red iron oxide. In making the project, not only did Nan and Zucco want to reinvent the classic column design, they also wanted to demonstrate the potential to add more color and dynamism to 3D printed concrete, most of the existing examples of which are uniformly grey.
Like a classical Greek column, the tall structure is made up of separate blocks, which are stacked one on top of the other. In this case, each 3D printed block weighs less than 30 kg to facilitate its assembly, transport and disassembly.
Diamanti 3D printed bridge
Also part of the Time.Space.Existence. Exhibition is the impressive Diamanti 3D printed bridge, whose development was led by a team at the Polyhedral Structures Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. The bridge is a 3D printed prototype than spans 2.5 meters and is made from nine prefabricated concrete sections—made using Vertico’s robotic printing technology and a material developed by Sika.
The bridge’s structure is itself worth writing home about: it is based on a modular post-tensioned design that is held together using eight ungrouted steel cables. This unique design means that the bridge can be mounted and disassembled with relative ease. The printed architecture of the bridge also integrates diamond-shaped anticlastic surfaces, which provide increased stiffness while also minimizing the amount of material required. Notably, a larger version of the bridge spanning nine meters has also been made and tested with success.
Visitors can see the 3D printed Diamanti bridge prototype at the Giardini della Marinaressa until November, when the biennale wraps up.
A Flower in San Servolo
(Photo: Niccolò Baccega)
Mario Cucinella Architects, a Bologna-based architecture firm, has 3D printed an amphitheater-inspired installation on Venice’s San Servolo Island as part of the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2025. The installation, named A Flower in San Servolo, consists of 750 3D printed flower-shaped blocks that have been arranged in an amphitheater structure, opening onto a view of the San Lazzaro degli Armeni island.
The blocks were made using a robotic 3D printer and a sustainable lime-based building material in a printing process that reportedly took nearly 200 hours to complete. Notably, the blocks were 3D printed on-site (minimizing transportation) and were based on 62 modular designs, meaning that the blocks could be fit together without the need for an adhesives using an interlocking system that facilitates take-down and re-assembly.
The impressive installation is also multi-purpose: some of the blocks provide seating or can be used as steps, while others function as planters, resulting in a dynamic, green space with a stunning view. As Mario Cucinella said of the project: “A Flower in San Servolo is an amphitheater that creates a deep bond between architecture and nature, blending harmoniously into the Venice Lagoon. Thanks to 3D printing and the use of sustainable materials, the structure integrates into the landscape with an organic form that, like a flower, emerges from the ground.”
All these installations and more can be seen in person at the Venice Biennale of Architecture until the 23rd of November, 2025.
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Züblin and Instatiq leverage concrete 3D printing at scale: The top floor of one of the four-storey buildings is printed directly on the construction site, using an Instatiq P1 concrete printer. The printed walls reach a height of up to three meters and a thickness of 16.5 to 19 centimeters. They are produced at a speed of up to 10 centimeters per second and have a maximum output of 2.5 cubic meters per hour.
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Author: Tess Boissonneault
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