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HOME at the 2025 Venice Biennale
HOME at the 2025 Venice Biennale marks Australia’s first all-Indigenous-led pavilion, offering a powerful, immersive expression of place and a deep sensory connection to Country.
As part of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, the Australian Institute of Architects presented HOME as the Australia Pavilion. Envisioned by First Nations designers, HOME is a hands-on sensory experience that encourages participants to share what home is to them through memories and stories.
The three creators of the Australia Pavilion were Dr Michael Mossman, a lecturer in architecture at Sydney University, Professor Emily McDaniel, a professor of architecture at UTS, and Jack Gillmer-Lilley, First Nations Lead architect at SJB. They drew on the vast, storied landscapes of the Australian continent as both inspiration and grounding force for HOME. The result is an immersive earth-and-plaster experience of place – serene, tactile and deeply reflective, which continues the national conversation on identity, culture and responsibility.
Working alongside the three directors was the ‘Creative Sphere’, a collective of First Nations practitioners including Kaylie Salvatori, Clarence Slockee, Elle Davidson and Bradley Kerr. The group, who received support from Brickworks, among others – is committed to reshaping architectural discourse by foregrounding Indigenous knowledge systems.
This approach challenges dominant Western frameworks and, instead, invites processes rooted in yarning, reciprocity and shared storytelling. Through this collaboration, the designers aim to demonstrate how architectural practice can evolve when informed by First Nations principles. The intention is not only to shift how buildings are conceived and made but also to reframe how we relate to one another and the environments we inhabit.
This commitment to shared process is further embodied in a national education initiative developed alongside the exhibition. HOME brought together 125 architecture and design students from 11 universities to respond to the provocation of ‘home’. Devised by Michael Mossman and Elle Davidson and hosted by the University of Sydney’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning, the program marked the largest school of architecture collaboration in Australia.
Through a mix of online and in-person engagement, including journalling, drawing, prototyping and conversation, students were invited to design an object reflecting their personal experience and understanding of home. These objects frame the final exhibition in Venice, with visitors encouraged to hold, touch and reflect on each piece and the story behind it.
As Emily McDaniel explains, “HOME is a generous and timely offering to the Venice Architecture Biennale that will welcome visitors as active contributors and participants.” The invitation is to listen deeply, design differently and reimagine the built environment as a living dialogue with Country.
