Ahead of Venice Biennale 2026, the Central Pavilion mediates renewal and retention

The striking, black skeletal framework emerging from the rustic walls of the Central Pavilion at the Giardini in Venice—home to several national pavilions and one of the two main venues for the famed Venice Biennale—announces its reopening following an extensive renovation ahead of this year’s edition, politically charged for more reasons than one. The renovation marks a special milestone in the history of La Biennale di Venezia, being the most complex phase of the Ministry of Culture’s ‘Great Cultural Heritage Attractors’ programme, which set out to upgrade prominent sites of the Biennale to cater to the evolving functional requirements and increased footfall over the years, and to match global sustainability standards. 

The idea of renewal is not new to the pavilion; in fact, given the site's historical progression, it is probably a living tradition. The structure has undergone several changes over the past century—across different eras, styles, demands of the times, as well as makers’ egos—for it to eventually appear as a bricolage of distinct, sometimes even seemingly unrelated structural blocks and architectural styles. What distinguishes this renovation project, conceived by a collaborative of Rome-based architecture practices Labics and Fabio Fumagalli, along with Milan-based engineering group Buromilan, is perhaps the attempt to streamline decades of incremental updates into a comprehensive and cohesive exhibition space, befitting the anchor of Venice’s premier art festival.

Designed and executed in multiple layers, the project planning first addressed the spatial configuration of the site. The layout was simplified by bifurcating into the central core, containing a series of exhibition halls with the main access from Sala Chini—named so since Italian painter Galileo Chini painted the fresco on the octagonal dome in 1909—and the ancillary service areas, including a bookstore, cafe, educational room, technical spaces and La Biennale’s historical archive. Both these zones followed a distinct design approach.

The exhibition spaces have been rendered as close as possible to a tabula rasa for display, manifesting as plain, vacant halls, but not bare—consciously and carefully sanitised of all technical systems and other distractions to their functional efficiency—serving as neutral backdrops for the multitude of activities and exhibits to be hosted here. All the technical services are concealed behind the new, polished shelves, wall panels and flooring. Ventilation is regulated through operable modules, while the influx of natural light is optimised by a combination of diffusing and photovoltaic glass, doubling up as an energy source, set behind motorised shades that can be used to create dark environments if required. Select discernible remnants from the site’s architectural history have been preserved and restored, including Carlo Scarpa’s window fixtures, along with the original spatial forms of Sala Brenno del Guidice and its openings to the terrace along the canal.

The service areas in the Central Pavilion are required to cater to the massive public for the entire Giardini, in addition to the pavilion itself. Accordingly, the cafe and multi-purpose hall have been extended beyond their defined boundaries into the landscape of the Giardini through new outdoor structures. These dark, wooden projections are formed of X-Lam panels fixed on a frame of charred laminated wooden rafters and slender timber posts, maintaining the visual connection from the interiors to the surrounding gardens and riverfront. Referencing the Altane—traditional Venetian roof terraces—they perhaps form the most recognisable intervention in the project as they offset the solid mass of the pavilion building, framing its external identity in visually distinctive ways.

Beyond the functional and spatial enhancements, the design scheme also accounted for LEED’s parameters for ‘integrated sustainability’: consideration of site and context,  energy efficiency and optimal water usage, responsible use of materials and resources, reduced carbon emissions and improved quality of indoor environments, in its bid to match global sustainability standards, eventually fetching the LEED Gold Certification for the structure's considered renovation.

Throughout the 20th century, the site has been subjected to multiple architectural and artistic interventions—either in thought or execution—by the likes of renowned contemporaries such as Ernesto Basile, Daniele Donghi, Carlo Scarpa, Giò Ponti, Louis Kahn and Francesco Cellini, before the city ultimately decided to focus on periodic renovation plans to equip the site with relevant developments. Despite its consistent functional and spatial evolution, the Central Pavilion has anchored global conversations around art and eventually architecture to the city of Venice since its debut as Palazzo Pro Arte at the first International Art Exhibition in 1895. The pavilion, although renovated, still stands against the same (and yet infinitely more complex) urban fabric and event-scape. Through the process of renewal, it still carries its history, but not as an archive to feed into the nostalgia of its visitors. It is, rather, better described as an heir to its own legacy and history as home to perhaps the most talked-about art exhibition of the year.

Project Details

Name: Central Pavilion
Location: Giardini della Biennale
Architect: Labics, Fabio Fumagalli (architectural design + art direction
Collaborators: Buromilan (team lead, structural design, sustainability and general contract administration, coordination of safety), ia2 Studio (MEP Design, Fire Prevention and Technical Systems Operations Management), Stefano Olivari (Landscape Design), Setten Genesio S.p.A (Building Construction Contractor)
Area: 5,450 sq. m.
Year of Completion:2026