German Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale 2027: "CONVIVERE" Explores Coexistence and Democracy
The German Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building has chosen Kawahara Krause Architects, alongside Andres Lepik and Olga Cobuscean, to curate the German Pavilion at the upcoming 20th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia in 2027. Titled "CONVIVERE — A Repertoire of Living Together," the exhibition aims to direct attention towards the interstitial spaces within residential settings, such as entryways, communal staircases, courtyards, and areas just outside doors. This curatorial approach arises from an analysis of contemporary societal challenges, including increasing social fragmentation, political polarization, and the urgent demand for accelerated construction. By focusing on these spaces, where daily interactions begin, the exhibition questions how architectural design can underpin democratic principles.
From the curators' perspective, these frequently disregarded domestic areas are crucial for nurturing trust, fostering neighborly relations, and facilitating everyday life. These transitional zones act as a bridge between the privacy of individual homes and the public sphere of the city, both uniting and demarcating private existence from the broader community. They cultivate spontaneous encounters, a sense of closeness, and collective belonging. These inherent qualities are encapsulated in the team's "CONVIVERE" concept, a design philosophy rooted in precise spatial choices. The exhibition will illustrate this concept through a collection of spatial arrangements designed to promote interaction, drawing examples from various periods of German housing. The team's primary goal is to emphasize those elements and transitions in architecture that actively encourage social engagement. Consequently, the chosen examples are not merely about the structures themselves but about demonstrating architecture's profound capacity to influence how communities inhabit space together.
The collaborative exhibition project involves students from four prominent German universities: RWTH Aachen University, RPTU Kaiserslautern, Technische Universität München, and Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart. These students will be instrumental in researching, exploring, and presenting the spatial scenarios for the exhibition. Further details regarding the exhibition's content are anticipated in early 2027. The current challenge for the architects, curators, researchers, and students is to identify and showcase compelling examples that concretely demonstrate how architecture can contribute to the formation of democratic societal spaces.
The German Pavilion's focus on "CONVIVERE" offers a hopeful vision for the future of urban living, demonstrating architecture's potential to counteract social isolation and build stronger communities. By highlighting how thoughtful design of shared spaces can promote interaction, understanding, and a sense of collective identity, the exhibition champions the idea that our built environment can actively shape a more democratic and inclusive society. It reminds us that architecture is not merely about structures, but about fostering human connection and creating environments where coexistence thrives.