Biennale Architettura
Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu take the Architecture Biennale with Do Architecture, which is the 2027 reason Residence readers should return to the same gardens they walked for In Minor Keys.
2027 dates
- Venue
- Giardini, Arsenale and venues across Venice
- Where to plan around
- Castello, Giardini and Arsenale, with national pavilions also in the historic centre
- Access
- Timed tickets will sell through La Biennale. National pavilions may keep different hours. Rolex is exclusive partner and official timepiece.
- Official information
- Visit La Biennale di Venezia ↗
The Banquet note
La Biennale has appointed Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, founders of Amateur Architecture Studio in Hangzhou in 1997, to direct the 20th International Architecture Exhibition. Wang Shu received the Pritzker Prize in 2012. Together they established the architecture school at the China Academy of Art, where Wang was the first dean. The exhibition, titled Do Architecture, For the Possibility of Coexistence Facing a Real Reality, runs from 8 May to 21 November 2027 at the Giardini, the Arsenale and other Venetian venues, with a pre-opening on 6 and 7 May. Their published brief asks whether land and building, craft and modern construction, memory and innovation can share a site. National pavilions continue in the usual gardens.
Stay in Castello if you want the Giardini at opening. Give the gardens one day and the Arsenale another, the same split that works for Arte. Mondays have usually been closed; wait for the 2027 information page before you build a Monday. Biennale Arte 2026 ends on 22 November 2026, so this is a new season. Salone in April is the furniture-fair version of the same appetite. Come if you want to see how Hangzhou’s slow-building argument reads in those gardens.
Plan it well
Two principal days, as with Arte. Book Castello lodging once tickets appear. Recheck Monday closures on labiennale.org before you fly.