Architecture Biennale 2025: DFAB-Guide

This year’s Biennale, curated by Carlo Ratti, is titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. One notable thread running through many of the 750 exhibits is the growing role of robots, computation, and digital fabrication in contemporary architectural production. From additive manufacturing with natural materials to robotic assembly and bio-informed processes, digital fabrication is no longer a niche practice—it is reshaping the way architecture is imagined, built, and understood.

This guide highlights a curated selection of projects where digital fabrication is central, or where former NCCR DFAB researchers led the design.

Necto

By NCCR DFAB alumna Prof. Dr. Mariana Popescu, SO-IL and TheGreenEyl

The installation Necto, located in the Arsenale, was developed by NCCR DFAB alumna Professor Mariana Popescu in collaboration with SO-IL and TheGreenEyl. It continues Marianas investigation into lightweight, knitted formworks. The structure is made from 3D-knitted natural fibers, a technique that allows for material-efficient design and transportability. In fact, one of the most remarkable aspects of Necto is its logistics: the entire structure, weighing only 38.5 kg, was transported to Venice using regular luggage—by vehicle, commercial flight, and vaporetto—without crates or packaging waste. You find Necto at the Arsenale in Room 2 of the Natural Intelligence section.

Necto is an installation made from 3D-knitted natural fibers © Iwan Baan

A Robots Dream

By Gramazio Kohler Research and NCCR DFAB spin-off MESH

The installation A Robot’s Dream creates a visually immersive environment in which visitors encounter a humanoid robot embedded within a structure of curved walls, constructed from robotically assembled rebar meshes by ETH spin-off MESH. Inside the mesh, the robot appears to float in mid-air. The raw material used for the mesh is low-carbon emission steel, which has approximately 80% lower CO₂-equivalent emissions compared to conventional steel used globally. After the exhibition, the structure will be repurposed, and the robot will continue to be used in research. You find A Robots Dream at the Arsenale in Room 3 of the Natural Intelligence section.

A Robot’s Dream, installation view with humanoid robot, La Biennale di Architettura, Venice, 2025 © Gramazio Kohler Research, ETH Zurich. Photo: Michael Lyrenmann

Geological Microbial Formations

By Karen A. Antorveza Paez from the Chair of Digital Building Technologies supervised by NCCR DFAB PI Prof. Benjamin Dillenburger. Robert Kindler, Dr. Dimitrios Terzis

DBT presents a living installation that acts as a biofabrication system. A robotic arm builds an architectural structure by layering sand and granulates, then spraying them with biocement enriched with bacterial cultures. Inspired by stromatolites—geological formations shaped by microbes—this technique shows potential for regenerative repair through biologically-driven construction. You find Geological Microbial Formations at the Arsenale.

© Matteo Losurdo

Materiae Palimpsest at the Moroccan Pavilion

By NCCR DFAB alumn El Mehdi Belyasmine and Khalil Morad el Ghiladi

When you enter the Maroccan Pavilion you smell earth. And the diversity of earth construction is what is highlighted here. Teqchniques that are used across Marocco, such as rammed earth, adobe and cob. Materiae Palimpsest explores the possibilities of traditional Moroccan skills. It ws born out of the desire to identify new ways of thinkg that start with earthen achitecutre. With this work, former MAS ETH DFAB student El Mehdi combines tradition and innovation under one roof.

Materiae Palimpsest. Moroccan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2025. © Samuele Cherubini

Anti-Ruin at the Turkish Pavilion

By NCCR DFAB researcher Dr. Pietro Odaglia from the Chair of Digital Building Technologies. Dr. Magda Posani, Dr. Vera Voney, OZRUH, formDP

The installation Anti-Ruin in the Turkish Pavilion was realised with Geopolymer Binder Jetting, a 3D printing technology developed by Dr. Pietro Odaglia at the Chair of Digital Building Technologies to turn industrial byproducts into bespoke, ready-to-use building parts. Designed by OZRUH and built from recycled marble dust, the structure revives discarded materials while renewing the ancient language of monumental stone through computational design and additive manufacturing.

Photo: Lloyd Lee

Picoplanktonics at the Canadian Pavillon

By Andrea Ling from the Chair of Digital Building Technologies the the Living Room Collective

Picoplanktonics are 3D-printed architectural-scale structures embedded with living cyanobacteria. These living prototypes were moved from the RFL into the Canada Pavilion and can be seen as an open experiment: Visitors can witness all phases of the material’s life, including growth, sickness, and death, while collectively imagining a regenerative design approach that seeks planetary remediation. Picoplanktonics marks four years of research at ETH Zürich with international collaborators in material science, biology, robotics, and computational design.

Living Room Collective: Picoplanktonics, Canada Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, 2025. Commissioned by the Canada Council for the Arts. Photo: Valentina Mori

Digital Earth Filler Slab

By Sasha Cutanjer from the Chair of Fabrication- and Material-Aware Architecture (FMAA)

The Digital Earth Filler Slabs aim to reduce concrete consumption for quotidian structural applications by up to 50%. This efficiency is enabled by the flexibility of 3D printing technologies which in turn allow the precise production of highly customisable parts using an extruded fibre-reinforced earth mix. Sasha is a researcher at the chair of NCCR DFAB PI Prof. Ena Lloret Fritschi at USI Mendrisio. Their slabs can be seen at Palazzo Mora, curated by the European Cultural Centre in the exhibition Time Space Existence 2025: A Collective Call to Repair, Regenerate, and Reuse.

Photo: Lea Keller

Re:Config

By NCCR DFAB alumna Dr. Marirena Kladeftira and NCCR DFAB PI Prof. Dr. Stefana Parascho

Re:Config explores how digital fabrication can support the adaptive reuse of damaged or outdated timber structures. Through a hybrid human-robot workflow, the project uses robotic fabrication, computer vision, and computational design to guide disassembly, repair, and reconstruction. By responding in real time to material conditions and structural uncertainties, Re:Config enables precise, localized interventions that extend the life and usefulness of existing buildings. Re:Config is exhibited at Palazzo Mora, curated by the European Cultural Centre in the exhibition Time Space Existence 2025: A Collective Call to Repair, Regenerate, and Reuse.

Photo: Lea Keller