The 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale with Brickworks

Leading manufacturer Brickworks takes a group of Australian architects and designers on an inspiring tour of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Every two years, the city of Venice becomes the epicentre of architectural thinking with the Venice Architecture Biennale. Since 2008, Brickworks has participated in the festival, hosting Australian architects and designers at what is one of the world’s pre-eminent architectural events. For the Brickworks team, the Biennale is an opportunity to connect with the Australian design community on a global stage.

“In 2008, there was an opportunity to sponsor this great event in Venice, and today, it gives us all a chance to collaborate and talk about architecture.”

“Brickworks works closely with Australia’s architectural community, and we do what we can to engage with them and support them with their projects,” says Brett Ward, the company’s general manager of international marketing. “Back in 2008, there was an opportunity to sponsor this great event in Venice, and today, it gives us all a chance to collaborate and talk about architecture.”

Equally, the biennial pilgrimage to Italy is a chance to explore new materials, visit manufacturing facilities and share knowledge. This year, Brickworks organised tours to its partner San Selmo’s brick factory and a glass brick workshop, providing first-hand insights into the artisanship and technological innovation behind these materials. The group also visited Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa’s Tomba Brion near Treviso – a highlight for many.

“It’s a really beautiful thing to get us together to celebrate not just architecture but our community as well.”

The Australian Pavilion represented the pinnacle of the tour. Titled ‘Home’ and created for the first time by an all-Indigenous curatorial team, the rammed-earth structure was designed to showcase First Nations knowledge systems and cultural practices through form and materiality. It was a deeply considered project that asked visitors to pause and reflect while engaging in the space and connecting with the objects and people around them.

Brickworks’ approach to the Venice Architecture Biennale is grounded in the idea of bringing people together, and its designated cocktail bar on the Grand Canal was a vibrant meeting place for the Australian cohort of creatives, many of whom reunite and reconnect here every two years. “It’s a really beautiful thing to get us together to celebrate not just architecture but our community as well,” says Ben Peake of Carter Williamson Architects.

Production by The Local Production.