from kinetic pavilions to indigenous intelligence: inside 'time space existence' in venice

Time Space Existence returns for its seventh edition

The seventh edition of Time Space Existence, the biennial architecture exhibition organized by the European Cultural Centre (ECC), returns to Venice through 23 November 2025. Spread across three historic venues — Palazzo Mora, Palazzo Bembo, and the Marinaressa Gardens — the show brings together 207 participants from over 52 countries, reaffirming its role as a global platform for architectural dialogue and experimentation. This year’s theme, Repair, Regenerate, Reuse, invites architects, designers, artists, and researchers to respond with works that span speculative proposals, academic research, and built interventions. Highlights include a net-zero housing prototype by HOLCIM and ELEMENTAL, and Sombra, a kinetic, light-responsive pavilion by MVRDV, both installed at Marinaressa Gardens. Notable contributions also come from Zaha Hadid Architects, Adjaye Associates, Korean architect Moon Hoon, and many more. 

Elemental and Holcim Basic Services Unit installation view at Marinaressa Gardens | all images © Celestia Studio

REPAIR, REGENERATE, REUSE

This year’s exhibition invites tangible responses to climate and social crises. Instead of posing hypothetical questions, participants present real-world solutions: architecture studio Vuild addresses rural decline in Japan using local forestry and digital fabrication, while Semillas empowers Amazonian communities through participatory architecture. Canadian firm Blouin Orzes blends traditional Inuit knowledge with modern techniques to respond to harsh northern climates.

The exhibition also includes speculative futures: Collectif Carré Noir imagines a utopian territorial reorganization, and Delft University showcases Indigenous-led design methodologies through film. These works question architecture’s conventional limits, embracing regeneration and equity as central design imperatives.

Semillas installation view at Palazzo Mora

HIGHLIGHTS across venetian venues

The Marinaressa Gardens become a laboratory of environmental dialogue. HOLCIM and Alejandro Aravena’s ELEMENTAL unveil a scalable housing prototype using low-carbon materials. MVRDV’s Sombra, a kinetic installation responsive to sun and shade, explores architecture’s adaptive potential. Meanwhile, Virginia Tech and Cloud 9’s PolliNATION pavilion reintroduces pollinators to the Venetian lagoon, turning ecological restoration into spatial form.

Meanwhile, across venues, many projects foreground material reuse, vernacular methods, and local identity. Coburg University constructs a pavilion from regional ‘waste timber’; GRAS and Huguet experiment with terrazzo made from recycled fragments. Zaha Hadid Architects and University of Calgary explore modular systems designed for disassembly and reuse, advancing circular construction logic.

Others engage history and place: Materia (Mexico) reimagines cultural heritage buildings in harmony with the landscape, while A Interiors blends desert tradition with contemporary living in Riyadh. María Isabel Paz preserves endangered textile techniques through urban storytelling in handmade rugs.

MVRDV, Airshade Technologies, Metadecor, Alumet, ARUP, Van Rossum Engineering, AMOLF Institute SOMBRA installation view at Marinaressa Gardens

A LIVING LAB FOR FUTURE ARCHITECTURE

With projects ranging from activist landscapes to modular prototypes and speculative utopias, Time Space Existence 2025 offers a cross-section of how architecture can regenerate rather than extract, reconnect rather than divide. As ECC’s Rachele De Stefano notes, the exhibition doesn’t just ask what architecture is, but what it could become — a driver of systemic change rooted in repair, resilience, and responsibility.

Enter Projects Asia Interwoven, 2025 installation view at Marinaressa Gardens

Juan José Castellón xmade Rice University Impluvium Redux installation view at Palazzo Mora

Moon Hoon installation view at Palazzo Bembo

Coral Gallery – Roberto Vivo The Human Tribe Totem, 2024 installation view at Marinaressa Gardens

Henriquez Partners Architects Symplasma, 2025 installation view at Palazzo Bembo

Adjaye Associates International Children’s Cancer Research Centre, 2025 installation view at Palazzo Bembo

Pfeifer Jones Architecture Organ Drone Dome, 2025 installation view at Palazzo Mora

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Juan José Castellón xmade Rice University Impluvium Redux installation view at Palazzo Mora

Juan José Castellón xmade Rice University Impluvium Redux installation view at Palazzo Mora

Almost Studio and Nanette Carter installation view at Palazzo Mora

María Isabel Paz Suárez Quito Fragmented, 2025 installation view at Palazzo Mora

María Isabel Paz Suárez Quito Fragmented, 2025 installation view at Palazzo Mora

GRAS Reynés Arquitectos, in collaboration with Huguet and sponsored by Camper ONA, 2025 installation view at Marinaressa Gardens

Tan Yamanouchi & AWGL Anywhere Door, 2025 installation view at Marinaressa Gardens

Tan Yamanouchi & AWGL Anywhere Door, 2025 installation view at Marinaressa Gardens

project info: 

name: Time Space Existence 2025
organized by: European Cultural Centre (ECC) | @ecc_italy
location: Palazzo Mora, Palazzo Bembo, Marinaressa Gardens in Venice, Italy 
dates: 10 May – 23 November 2025