Barcelona Urban Tech Hub at the Venice Biennale 2025

IAAC Presents the Barcelona Urban Tech Hub and Its New Headquarters at the Venice Biennale 2025

As part of the installation “Building as a Collective Prototyping”, the project will be officially unveiled on May 8th at 12:00h at the Arsenale di Venezia, and will remain on view from May 10th to November 23rd, 2025.

A Living Prototype of Advanced Architecture

The installation embodies IAAC’s vision of architecture as a vehicle for innovation, collective intelligence, and ecological transformation. It showcases a 1:10 scale exploded model of the future IAAC headquarters — a regenerative and technologically advanced building that rethinks how cities can evolve through design.

Located in the 22@ district of Barcelona, the Barcelona Urban Tech Hub transforms a former industrial site into a new centre for urban innovation. The project is designed by Daniel Ibañez (IAAC’s Director) and Vicente Guallart (IAAC’s Co-founder), developed in collaboration with their architectural studio Urbanitree, and promoted by Barcelona Activa from the Barcelona City Council.

Innovation Through Applied Research

The project integrates key innovations that have emerged from over a decade of applied research at IAAC. These include:

Robotic and industrialised timber construction
Decentralised energy and smart resource systems
3D printing with earth for sustainable building
Urban food production through solar greenhouses
Environmental sensing with open-source technology
Circular water systems and biodiversity infrastructures

These elements reflect IAAC’s commitment to architecture as a platform for experimentation, knowledge transfer, and global impact.

Part of a Collective Conversation

Selected by curator Carlo Ratti, the project is exhibited in the Central Pavilion of the Arsenale, under the Biennale’s main theme: “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.” The installation positions IAAC’s architectural thinking within a broader cultural dialogue on the future of our built environments.

Join Us in Venice

The installation “IAAC: Prototyping the Future” will be presented by Vicente Guallart and Daniel Ibañez on May 8th at 12:00h at the Arsenale di Venezia.

We invite you to discover it in person and engage with a vision of architecture that is bold, systemic, and deeply collaborative.