Organizers of U.S. Pavilion at 19th Venice Architecture Biennale Launch Open Call for Participants

A house with a large front porch in Edgard, Louisiana. The theme of the U.S. Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale “focuses on the representation of the U.S. through the contemporary manifestation of the porch in American architecture.” Photo © Tim Hursley

The Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas in partnership with the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and independent consultancy DesignConnects has formally launched an open call seeking design exhibition proposals for the United States Pavilion at the forthcoming Venice Architecture Biennale.

As announced in August, the organizers were selected by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs to commission and curate the historic pavilion within the famed Giardini della Biennale, which will open to the public on May 10^th when the 19^th edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale, curated by Carlo Ratti, kicks off. Also announced in August is the theme of the U.S. exhibition, PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity.

U.S. Pavilion co-commissioners pictured left to right: Peter MacKeith, dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas; DesignConnects principal Susan Chin; and Rod Bigelow, executive director of the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art. Photo courtesy Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design

Architects, landscape architects, designers, artists, public agencies, nonprofits, and other creatives based in the U.S. and its territories are all invited to submit proposals for the U.S. Pavilion through January 17. To be considered for the exhibition, submitted projects must have been completed after 2000; once received, they will be evaluated by the PORCH design team leads (Marlon Blackwell, Julie Bargmann, Stephen Burks, and Maura Rockcastle), joined by a jury of architecture and design professionals. A total of at least 50 proposals will be selected by February 3 for the interior exhibition; invited participants will then receive stipends to further develop their submissions into a designated format. Finalized exhibitions must be ready for delivery to the commissioners by March 31, 2025.

Launching in mid-January 2025 is a separate call for participation that will invite students and schools of design and architecture to submit unbuilt and speculative projects.

“The exhibitor contributions to the U.S. Pavilion, achieved through the Open Call, lie at the heart of the collective PORCH project,” said Peter MacKeith, co-commissioner and dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. “Framed by the constructions and installations of our design team, the exhibitor contributions will animate an understanding of contemporary architecture and design in the United States as a source of civic engagement and community building, a resource for social and environmental resiliency and as fundamentally committed to the greater good of society.”

Full submission guidelines can be found here.

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Matt Hickman is Senior News/Digital Editor at Architectural Record. Previously, he served as Senior Editor at The Architect’s Newspaper and has over a decade of experience as a freelance writer and editor specializing in historic preservation, public space, and the intersection of the natural world and built environment. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Matt holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from The New School.