“The Biennale Architettura 2025 aims to be more than an Exhibition; it is an experiment in uniting different voices and forms of intelligence. Some will resonate louder than others; some might clash and produce jarring sounds. Nonetheless, we hope that this choral effort will offer new insights into one of the defining challenges of our time: adapting to an altered world.”
With this final paragraph at his introductory text Carlo Ratti, the curator of the 19th Biennale of Architecture, highlights the goals and his aspirations of this years’ ambitious exhibition under the title Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. The 19th International Architecture Exhibition will be held from Saturday 10 May to Sunday 23 November 2025
While having its main focus on architecture and its roots- human need for shelter and survival, driven by optimism – Ratti acknowledges that in today’s world threatened by climate crisis, architecture alone can no longer provide adequate solutions. Moreover the time has come for architecture to go beyond today’s limited focus on AI and digital technologies and embrace adaptation inviting different types of intelligence -natural, artificial, collective- to work together to rethink the built environment.
Vessel is a collective studio based on the island of Aegina, Greece. It was founded by artists Navine G. Dossos and James Bridle. It’s members work collectively on public projects.
Vessel was invited by Carlo Ratti’s team of curators to work on a project linked to their community and bio-region on Aegina. James Bridle’s book Ways of Being – Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence has many interwoven themes with this year’s Biennale.
Navine g. Dossos talked to Ex_posure about Vessel and their fascinating project for Venice Biennale of Architecture: The Only Flowering Plant in the Ocean.
Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. How do you perceive this concept and what does it imply about the future of architecture and of our lives in general?
These words all reflect the very urgent need for us to all develop a more profound relationship with ecology. We need to be in right relationship with environments, and that goes for everything from what we eat to how we shelter ourselves. As James’s book points out, before we couple ourselves to a future living with artificial intelligence, we need to better understand and respect the more-than-human world and its many forms of intelligence that already surrounds us, and tend to that kinship first.
Would you like to introduce Vessel to us?
Vessel is a collective creative studio on the island of Aegina founded by Navine G. Dossos and James Bridle in 2022. It was a response to the need for communal space for creative practices, and a desire to work locally as well as internationally in a less extractive model than what the art world has become used to.
Vessel members run workshops for students, artists, and the public, and undertake public projects individually and collectively, with a core interest in ecology, resilience, and co-education in the context of the Greek islands and the wider Mediterranean.
Vessel provides working space for a range of artistic practices, including visual arts, printmaking, filmmaking, restoration, and curation.
Vessel exists to develop, learn, and share new creative practices in the face of uncertain futures. We believe in the basic idea of ‘learning to build, and building to learn’. We encourage the development of a holistic form of finding agency in personal and societal growth through community practices and shared spaces.
Vessel members include visual artists, filmmakers, graphic designers, architects, researchers, and curators.
Vessel is participating at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., curated by Carlo Ratti.
Tell us about the project you have been working on and prepared for this exhibition.
We are sending several packing cases of seagrass, collected on our local beaches, to Venice. As well as samples of seagrass prepared for architectural use, we’ll include ceramic objects made from local clay, which tell the story of seagrass in the wild. This is a reference to the Venetian glassmakers of Murano, who used to send their wares around the world packed in seagrass from the lagoon of Venice.
Even the painted crates will be made from reclaimed wood, and will form part of the exhibit, in order to minimise waste and maximise recycling as part of the project. All materials will be returned to Aegina after the exhibition and will re-enter the community in various forms that reflect the values of the Biennale’s Circularity Manifesto.
On Aegina, and around the Mediterranean, seagrass has been used for generations as insulation for houses and fertiliser for fields. Although these practices have largely disappeared, and been replaced by synthetic and unsustainable alternatives, the seagrass is still here.
We’ve been using seagrass as insulation in our projects, and it really is a wonder material: fire-resistant, inhospitable to pests, and free to collect on the beaches. Moreover, as we’ve used it, we’ve discovered its worlds, and become involved in conservation efforts to preserve and regenerate local seagrass meadows in the Aegean.
We want to share this knowledge, and raise awareness about seagrass ecology and conservation.
Working with the Biennale is part of a much wider integrative practice that we hope will generate more interest and education on our island of Aegina about conservation, ecology, sustainability and being in right relationship with nature at this critical time of our planet’s history.
As part of the project, we will be hosting a series of workshops on Aegina during the time of the Biennale, so that there is a local element to the work, which is crucial to how we think about who are work is for and how it functions..
We hope to be able to share the outcomes of these processes in an exhibition on the island once the Biennale finishes and our project returns home to the island.
Suggested Workshop Outline:
Beach Awareness: Focussing on the role of Posidonia on the coastline as a means of anchoring the sand and soil and stopping erosion. This will be an educational activity showing that seagrass is not a dirty thing that should be removed but is something that protects our coastlines and is part of what a beach is.
Promotion of Poseidonia as a packing material for transport: Working with a young ceramics business in Athens, but with roots in Aegina, we will establish a sustainable method for dried seaweed to be used to protect fragile objects in transit. We will set up an easy and reliable method of collection and storage to that the business can invest in this sustainable material long-term
Promotion of Poseidonia as a fertilizing material in the garden: We will look at how washed-up Poseidonia can be cleaned and processed to be a good material for domestic gardens. It protects the earth from the sun and helps retain water as well as having fertilising properties.
Architectural Poseidonia: A visit to several old houses on Aegina that show how Poseidonia has been used as an insulation material in roofs, and consider how we might return to this technique of working with local natural materials when building and renovating.
Ceramics workshop: Looking at different local clays, their history and usage, we will collect, process and build vessels that are inspired by Aegina’s pottery that was famous in antiquity for its porosity and ability to store cool drinks in hot weather.