Among the finalists for the curatorship of the Italian Pavilion at the next Architecture Biennale in Venice, the project 'Terræ Aquæ. Italy and the intelligence of the sea' by Guendalina Salimei, an architect and professor at the Sapienza University of Rome, who founded T-Studio, which focuses on the relationship between design practice and experimental research.

The details of the project are not yet known, but for Salimei it is “an important opportunity to put the relationship of our territory with the sea at the centre of architectural, technical and cultural reflection: the Mediterranean extends to the nearby oceans. The centrality of this structural relationship, which affects the country's identity and environmental balance, has long been neglected.”  

In line with the theme of the 19th edition, curated by Carlo Ratti, which proposes a focus on natural, artificial and collective intelligence, Salimei's project aims at a different point of view than the usual one: not looking at the sea from the land, but vice versa: “Looking at Italy from the sea implies a change of perspective, it imposes the need to rethink the design of the border between land and water as an integrated system of architecture, infrastructures and landscape”, argues the architect.

The Italian Pavilion will be open from 10 May to 23 November 2025.