Mexico Pavilion Revives Mesoamerican Wisdom at Venice Architecture Biennale 2025

Selected by the Ministry of Culture and the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Chinampa Veneta reflects on how we inhabit and design the world in the face of the global ecological crisis. Rooted in the millennia-old chinampa agricultural system still used in Xochimilco, south of Mexico City, the project reimagines this knowledge within the Venetian context, activating a living environment in an emblematic city.

Collage of the Chinampa Veneta, 2025, Collage over an image of Teatro del Mondo from Aldo Rossi, © Chinampa Veneta

Collage of the Chinampa Veneta, 2025, Collage over an image of Teatro del Mondo from Aldo Rossi, © Chinampa Veneta

Gran Tenochtitlan in 1519, Luis Covarrubias, Oil on canvas, 1964, Museo Nacional de Antropología and Aerial view of the Venetian lagoon, digital image, 365_visuals/Shutterstock.com, © Chinampa Veneta

Inside the Arsenale, a sequence of chinampas illustrates their life cycle, culminating in a living installation that merges a Veneto agroforestry method (vite maritata) with Mesoamerican milpa techniques. A second enactment floats on the Venetian Lagoon as a symbolic gesture, recalling Aldo Rossi’s Teatro del Mondo, and forging a poetic link between two lake cities facing shared ecological and political challenges.

Xochimilco, 2025, © Yvonne Venegas

Xochimilco, 2025, © Yvonne Venegas

Xochimilco, 2025, © Uta Gleiser

Xochimilco, 2025, © Uta Gleiser

Xochimilco, 2025, © Uta Gleiser

Xochimilco, 2025, © Uta Gleiser

Xochimilco, 2025, © Uta Gleiser

Chinampa Veneta invites us to rediscover soil health and ecological balance through ancestral knowledge, proposing a symbiotic architectural practice that co-designs with ecosystems. The Pavilion is commissioned by José María Bilbao Rodríguez and designed by Colectivo Chinampa Veneta, a multidisciplinary team composed of architects, designers, and researchers from various studios including Estudio Ignacio Urquiza, Ana Paula de Alba, Estudio María Marín de Buen, ILWT, Locus, Lucio Usobiaga Hegewisch & Nathalia Muguet, and Pedro&Juana.

The Pavilion will be open from 10 May to 23 November 2025 at the Arsenale, with an opening event on 8 May featuring a dialogue between farmers from Xochimilco and Venice on regenerative agriculture and territorial practices.

Colectivo Chinampa Veneta: Estudio Ignacio Urquiza y Ana Paula de Alba, Estudio María Marín de Buen, ILWT, Locus, Lucio Usobiaga Hegewisch & Nathalia Muguet, Pedro&Juana

Aldo Urban, Ana Paula de Alba, Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo, Andrea Mejía, Diego Manzano, Emilio M. Frausto, Federico de Antuñano, Ignacio Urquiza Seoane, Isabel Brocado, Jachen Schleich, Javiera Elicer, Lucio Usobiaga Hegewisch, Lucero Chaires, María Marín de Buen, Martina Duque, Mecky Reuss, Michela Lostia di Santa Sofia, Miguel Ángel Vega Ruiz, Nathalia Muguet, Paulina García Ortíz, Rodrigo Huesca, Sana Frini, Santiago Sitten, Shantal Gabriela Haddad Gómez, Xavier Delgado González, Yavanna Latapí