Architects and educators Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu were appointed by La Biennale di Venezia to curate Venice's International Architecture Exhibition in 2027.
Architects and designers from across the globe will convene once again in Venice, Italy, for the twentieth edition of the distinguished architecture exhibition, which is set to take place between 8 May and 21 November 2027, with a pre-opening preview scheduled for 6 and 7 May.
Shu and Wenyu founded Amateur Architecture Studio in 1997. Their work is known for focusing on the use of existing materials and the craftsmanship of local artisans. Notable projects include the Ningbo Historic Museum, the Xiangshan Campus of China Academy of Art, the Renovation of Wencun Village, Tiles Hill in Hangzhou and the Fuyang Cultural Complex.
In 2003, they established the Architecture Department at the China Academy of Art, followed by the School of Architecture in 2007, where Wang Shu serves as the first dean and Lu Wenyu is the director of the Sustainable Construction Centre.
Shu and Wenyu first participated in the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006, contributing to the China Pavilion. They returned in 2010 at the invitation of Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, earning a Special Mention for their project Decay of a Dome, and again in 2016, after being invited by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena.
In 2012, Shu received the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
President of the biennale Pietrangelo Buttafuoco said Shu and Wenyu represent important voices in contemporary architecture. "Their vision, deeply rooted in the memory of places and in the knowledge of construction processes, represents today an essential voice in the international debate on architecture and on the meaning of inhabiting the world's spaces. In them, La Biennale di Venezia recognizes two leading figures capable of combining cultural responsibility with experimental genius, offering a contribution of extraordinary quality at a time in history that demands knowledge, balance, and imagination. Their guidance will inspire broad and necessary reflection, projecting the Biennale Architettura 2027 toward new perspectives and new ways of understanding our relationship with space, memory, and the engaged community.
Shu and Wenyu said they were honoured to be appointed curators. "In the current world, the rapid and multiple changes in architecture are more a phenomenon of appearance, the result of excessive conceptualisation or marked commercialisation. Conceptual experiments driven to extremes are often divorced from reality and over-commercialisation tends to be merely popular and short-lived. This phenomenon changes rapidly in order to survive, breaking away from the connection with the real place. It will lead to the death of architecture. Therefore, architecture becomes a kind of delusional expression about the future," they said.
"For this reason, in the face of the real crisis of this world, insisting on a simple and true concept and method of architecture has a special value. We will strive to present this value and exploration with the greatest sincerity for a better reality and future."
The 2025 Biennale, curated by Carlo Ratti, included Australia's exhibition Home, a First Nations-led project that explored shared meanings of home.
