Opening to the public tomorrow, the Venice Biennale’s 19th International Architecture Exhibition is the world’s most significant showcase dedicated to the discipline. Monocle had an early look at how its 750 participants – presenting their work in pavilions in the Biennale Gardens and inside the grand halls of the Arsenale building – are engaging with curator Carlo Ratti’s brief. The Italian architect and engineer’s ambition is to present architecture that embraces a combination of artificial, natural and human intelligence. “It’s about hybridising different types of knowledge,” he tells The Monocle Minute.

Bettering conversations about architecture emerged as a golden thread running through many of the works. There are straightforward examples: the interior of the Australia Pavilion features a curving earth-and-plaster wall, a physical form that encourages dialogue. “It’s about coming together and telling stories about who you are and what’s important to you,” says Michael Mossman, one of the Australian exhibition’s curators. “And then it’s about listening deeply and carefully to what the people around you are saying.”
 
There have also been more abstract takes. Switzerland created a conversation between two architectural styles by tactfully (and tastefully) inserting a radial structure into its boxy national pavilion; Japan, meanwhile, examined the history of its own pavilion as it prepares for a grand renovation of the building, which dates to 1956. A strong theme of listening to local cultures has also been on display: a joint UK-Kenyan effort focuses on traditional architectural forms from former British colonies, while Qatar has built a structure that delves into how hospitality and inclusivity shape architectural spaces across the Middle East and South Asia.

These diverse responses highlight a move towards an architecture that is more attuned to human and community needs through dialogue at all scales – be they at an interpersonal or a societal level. While architects must remain discerning when it comes to collaborative processes (as the adage goes, “A camel is a horse designed by committee”), this biennale serves as a reminder that their discipline thrives not in isolation but by tapping into the collective intelligence of those it serves. Conversation is the first and most fundamental building block in any design project.

Monisse is Monocle’s design editor. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

The death of Joseph S Nye was announced on Wednesday. The professor who had coined the phrase “soft power” was 88. At a time when hard power and coercion as means of statecraft are making a comeback, his compassion and intellectual rigour will be greatly missed by the world. Here is an article that Nye wrote two weeks ago. It will feature in Monocle’s June issue but we are publishing it here early.

In a world marked by wars in Ukraine and Gaza – and the leadership of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping – has soft power as a form of statecraft ceased to be effective or even desirable (asks Joseph S Nye)? Some 30 years ago, many believed that the age of hard power was diminishing and that the world was entering a new, softer era. Clearly that turned out to be wrong but it was never my view. I formulated the concept of soft power during the Cold War and argued that it could be relevant to conflict as well as peace. Soft power is the ability to affect others through attraction rather than coercion. Its consequences are often slow and indirect, and it is not the most important source of power for foreign policy – but to neglect it is a strategic and analytical mistake. The Roman Empire rested on its legions but also on the allure of Roman culture and citizenship.

To read the full article, click here.

With visionary artist Es Devlin as creative lead and architect Yuko Nagayama in charge of the structure, the Women’s Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka was always going to be an intriguing proposition (writes Fiona Wilson). The two have delivered one of the event’s subtlest, most effective attractions. Sponsored by Cartier, it sits between the Japan Pavilion and the Electric Power Pavilion but more than holds its own. Nagayama designed the pavilion for her home country at Dubai’s Expo 2020 and has repurposed and reconfigured its delicate façade here, incorporating a peaceful internal garden.

Personalising global issues such as gender inequality, social progress and climate change was a challenge. “It’s difficult to speak for all women,” Devlin tells The Monocle Minute. “I thought that the most sensitive way to approach it was to pick three individuals.” Visitors walk through one of three doors to glimpse the lives of the women as their voices are played over headphones. Japan is represented by the famously private novelist Banana Yoshimoto, whose childhood home is recreated in miniature as she speaks movingly of her path through work and motherhood. The impressive pavilion team includes award-winning film director Naomi Kawase, who shot footage of the women, and Chitose Abe of Sacai, who designed the pavilion’s uniforms. With so much else to catch visitors’ attention at Osaka, this pavilion is a good place to pause and reflect. 
expo2025

Major sporting events can be great catalysts for urban renewal – they can unlock investment, transform overlooked neighbourhoods, help boost the local economy and instil a sense of civic pride (writes Carlota Rebelo). It’s with that in mind that a bipartisan group of US senators are seizing the moment ahead of the Fifa World Cup in 2026 to call for $400m (€355m) in federal funding to boost public transport across 11 cities, from New York to Atlanta. 

The World Cup will bring in more than five million visitors with the majority relying on buses, trains and coaches to get around. As it stands, many US transport networks are ill-equipped to meet Fifa’s infrastructure and mobility standards – expanded services, longer hours, more staff, enhanced security and station upgrades are all needed. Investing in US inner-city infrastructure is no walk in the park, with a web of local, state and federal jurisdictions delaying and obstructing change. But the World Cup offers a rare opportunity to go beyond short-term fixes and election promises, and actually improve connectivity. Prompting behavioural shifts in a nation still dominated by the car would be a grand legacy for this tournament and the government needs to get on board.

Oliver Moody is the Berlin bureau chief of The Times and The Sunday Times, and co-host with Katja Hoyer of The New Germany podcast (writes Andrew Mueller). His latest book is Baltic: The Future of Europe. Here, Moody tells us about geopolitics and the threat from Russia.

The book covers not just the Baltic states but every country with a Baltic shore. Is there a consensus among them about the nature of the Russian threat?
The best guide that we have is from the end of 2021, when Vladimir Putin’s negotiators were in Washington and astonished their US counterparts by suggesting that Nato withdraw its forces to what had been the eastern boundary of the alliance prior to 1997. Putin’s ideal outcome would be Nato divided and pushed back in a way that would allow him to assert a sphere of influence over northeastern Europe.
 
The three Baltic states and the Nordics are widely envied for their competent governance and social cohesion. Are those values exportable?
What you can export, through the right political leadership, is the social contract that prevails in these front-line states – the understanding that a secure society is the most basic duty that a state has towards its citizens. People in Western Europe argue that we don’t need this because we’re not in the firing line to the same extent. But I argue that the concept of the front line is almost obsolete in an age of long-range missiles, cyberattacks and hybrid warfare. 
 
Is there any optimism out there that maybe, one day, the Baltic states might live alongside Russia as calmly as the Benelux countries now do alongside Germany?
I’ve never encountered a government official in the Baltic states who believes that it’s possible, unless or until Russia suffers a defeat that is drastic enough to reorient its domestic politics away from imperialism and revanchism.

From a Mexican architect’s greatest structures to the famous London Eye, we explore the effect that iconic pieces of the built environment can have on their cities.