Qatar Set to build First National Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 30 Years

Qatari cements its place at the Venetian biennial

Qatar is set to build a permanent national pavilion at Venice’s Giardini della Biennale, the first country to do so in 30 years. It will be only the second Arab pavilion with a permanent space in the Giardini besides Egypt, whose pavilion opened in 1932.

The Giardini della Biennale hosts both Venice’s architecture and art biennales, perhaps the most prestigious celebrations of art and architecture in the world. Qatar’s building - whose architect has yet to be announced - will be the first permanent pavilion since South Korea’s space opened in 1995. First opened to the public in 1895, the Giardini is home to 30 national pavilions. Each country curates its own program during the biennales, while other countries rent out spaces across Venice during the period.

"La Biennale di Venezia is the world's pre-eminent gathering in art and architecture, and the Giardini is the historic landscape where extraordinary pavilions stand as ambassadors for their nations," said Qatar Museums chairperson Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, "Qatar is proud to take its place in this international assembly, advancing our role as a global leader in cultural diplomacy and providing an unparalleled platform for giving voice to the creative talent of our nation and the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia region."

The announcement of Qatar’s national pavilion at the Giardini follows a protocol which was signed between the Municipality of Venice and Qatar Museums in 2024. This was designed to strengthen the relationships between themselves, and enhance collaboration in the socio-economic and cultural fields between Venice, Qatar and the Italian Republic. “Venice is the only European city to have had, since the year 1000 CE, a name in Arabic, Bunduqiyyah, a fact that testifies to the teeming mixture of languages and ethnicities that have long sheltered here”, says Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, President of La Biennale di Venezia, “In the spirit of curiosity, exploration, and sincere human exchange that characterizes Venice and its Biennale, I welcome Qatar to the Giardini, as a powerful global source of creativity and cross-cultural understanding.”

While there is no date announced for the opening of Qatar’s new pavilion, the space will be activated for the upcoming 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale opening in May. Qatar will be hosting a two-part exhibition, part of which will be an installation called "Community Centre” by Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari. This installation will be in situ where Qatar’s upcoming pavilion will be built in the Giardini. Lari is Pakistan's first woman architect, opening her own firm in Pakistan in 1964. She is known for developing Zero Carbon Architecture, uniting both ecological and social justice. She has built many community buildings in Pakistan’s villages in recognition of the need for women’s spaces outside of the home but separate from public areas. The “Community Centre” installation was previously on view in the exhibition MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today at Qatar’s National Museum, which closed in January 2025.

The second part of Qatar’s Venice exhibition will be entitled Beyi Beytak. My home is your home. La mia casa e la tua casa, and will explore the ideas of hospitality in the MENASA - Middle East, North Africa and South Asia - region. Commissioned by H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa and Qatar Museums, it is organised by the future Art Mill Museum - which is set to open in 2030 - and will feature 20 architects from the region. The exhibition is set to include both contemporary architects and modern pioneers and will take place at the ACO-Palazzo Franchetti. The modern architects featured include Raj Rewal (India), Nayyar Ali Dada (Pakistan) and Abdel Wahel El Wakil (Egypt). Meanwhile, the contemporary architects who will be featured in the exhibition include Abeer Seikaly (Jordan), Marina Tabassum (Bangladesh) and Sumaya Dabbagh (UAE).

The exhibition will be curated by Aurelien Lemonier (Art Mill Museum) and Sean Anderson (Cornell University). They will work in collaboration with Virgile Alexandre, who will help to bridge contemporary and historical narratives of the MENASA region. The exhibition’s concept - which literally translates as “my home is your home” in Arabic, English and Italian - will highlight the commonalities and multitudes of architectural expressions of hospitality across the region. The exhibition is set to reinforce the overall theme for this year’s architecture exhibition is “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective”, which was set by the Biennale’s curator Carlo Ratti.

The Biennale Architettura 2025 takes place in Venice from 10 May to 23 November 2025