The GreenInCities Barcelona pilot site reflects this philosophy in practice. Using Smart Citizen Kits powered by solar energy, residents and ecologists collaborate to track biodiversity and insect populations, testing how technology can enhance understanding between species. Workshops on co-creating resilient public spaces have encouraged birdwatchers, families, and cyclists to imagine environments designed for both humans and wildlife. This blend of digital tools and ecological awareness illustrates the Fab City vision of distributed knowledge and local empowerment, where citizens are active participants in sensing, learning, and shaping the living city.
At the Biennale, the same spirit of multi-species urbanism was visible in projects such as Epidermitecture, where microbial façades became living skins hosting biodiversity, and To Grow a Building, where soil-based 3D printing embedded with seeds allowed structures to sprout and decompose over time. In both cases, architecture became an active participant in its ecosystem rather than a passive container.
Across the Biennale, intelligence itself was redefined as ecological, a shared capacity between materials, systems, and species. Projects such as Architecture as Trees and Agentic Architecture proposed buildings that could grow, heal, and adapt through feedback loops between matter, data, and environment. This ecological definition of intelligence runs through the GreenInCities pilot in Birštonas, where an overheated riverside area is being transformed into a biodiverse, inclusive landscape for both humans and non-humans. Through participatory design sessions and the use of digital tools, residents co-create adaptive strategies with experts, giving voice to frogs, birds, and native insects.
A strong thread throughout the Biennale was the emphasis on ancestral knowledge and the leadership of the Global South in pioneering collective, regenerative solutions.
The Fab City Foundation extends this ethos through its global network, linking cities experimenting with similar adaptive models. By promoting open tools, local fabrication, and circular production, Fab City translates these local prototypes into a distributed network.
Water management was another theme demanding urgent solutions. In The Hinterland installation, focused was on the challenge of over-extracted aquifers, proposing a model of groundwater-informed urbanism. It reimagines cities as regenerative commons replenishing rather than depleting resources, inspired by Venice’s ancient water systems. For GreenInCities, water intelligence is a defining concern. Nova Gorica’s pilot focuses on flood-prone areas along the Koren Stream, restoring flood zones and enhancing the biodiversity of salamanders and dragonflies while creating human-nature access through edible gardens and sports areas.
If the Biennale’s message was that architecture must learn to adapt, the GreenInCities pilots demonstrate how this adaptation happens on the ground. Projects like IAAC’s new Barcelona headquarters, Building as Collective Prototyping, embody this shift. Built with timber, earth-based printing, sensors, and greenhouses, it will stand as a living node in both the GreenInCities and Fab City ecosystems. Similarly, Laguna in Mexico City, a “factory of factories” exemplifies how adaptive reuse can generate creative, civic, and ecological value. Across these examples, architecture moves from concept to agency: a process of shared authorship between citizens, experts, and nature.
Cities are Not a Finished Product
The Venice Biennale Architettura 2025 did not present architecture as a finished product, but as a living conversation between purpose, resource use, and imagination. For GreenInCities, it reaffirmed the importance of working with nature’s intelligence. For the Fab City Foundation, it strengthened the case for distributed design and circular production as essential frameworks for scaling this shift. Together, they illustrate how urban transformation emerges not from singular interventions but from connected, evolving systems of practice.
