Venice Architecture Biennale 2027 sets Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu’s 'Do Architecture' as curatorial frame

The curators of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2027, Chinese architects Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, today revealed the theme for the 20th International Architecture Exhibition, and it arrives with a title that sounds less like a curatorial statement and more like a direct challenge to the profession: Do Architecture — For the Possibility of Coexistence Facing a Real Reality. 

If recent architecture biennales have often leaned toward theory, speculation, and research-heavy installations, the current curatorial team seems intent on pulling the conversation back toward the physical act of building itself. "We believe that architecture is not only something to be discussed but, more importantly, something to be done first-hand," the curators explained in the announcement. "The philosophy of architecture is a philosophy of how to do: A practice that confronts real reality, in real places, through real construction." Their framing repeatedly returns to construction, craftsmanship, local mate...