US studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Bahrain have been awarded Golden Lions at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale for the best project on show and pavilion respectively.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s winning project, Canal Cafe, takes water from the Arsenal lagoon to create coffee for the event’s visitors, aiming to create a drink with a distinct Venetian flavour.
The Bahrain pavilion explores the effect of rising global temperatures on construction sites, with a suspended ceiling designed to create a microclimate in the space.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro and the Bahrain Pavilion were presented with the prizes at the official award ceremony of the Venice Architecture Biennale, held today at the event’s headquarters, Ca’ Giustinian.
There were two special mentions for national participation this year – the Holy See Pavilion and the British Pavilion, which was collaboratively created by curators from the UK and Kenya.
Special mentions were also given to the project Elephant Chapel by Bangkok Project Studio, which features a series of bio-brick arches made from elephant dung, and Nigerian architect Tosin Oshinowo for her project, Alternative Urbanism: The Self-Organized Markets of Lagos.
The Silver Lion for a Promising Young Participant went to researcher Kate Crawford and The CreaTures Lab for their exhibition, Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500.
The winners were selected by a jury made up of Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, MoMA architecture and design senior curator Paola Antonelli and South African architect Mpho Matsipa.
American philosopher Donna Haraway was presented with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in recognition of her influence on science, technology and feminist theory.
The Special Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Memoriam was given to the late Italian architect Italo Rota, who passed away last year aged 70.
Haraway and Rota were selected for the awards last month by this year’s biennale curator, Italian architect Carlo Ratti.
Dezeen rounded up 10 must-see national pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, which included a sports bar inside the Dutch Pavilion and a mass-timber canopy outside the US Pavilion.
The photography is by Iwan Baan unless stated.
The Venice Architecture Biennale takes place from 10 May to 23 November 2025. See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest information you need to know to attend the event, as well as a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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