Bahrain wins top prize at the Venice Architecture Biennale

Euronews

13-05-2025

The Venice Architecture Biennale, one of the most prestigious events in the world of architecture, has officially launched.
Taking place every two years, countries from around the globe are invited to showcase their most innovative and thought-provoking ideas about architecture in national pavilions - this time around the theme of 'Intelligens: Natural. Artificial. Collective.'
This year, the Bahrain Pavilion, located in the historic Artiglierie of the Arsenale, has won the coveted Golden Lion award for Best National Participation with its installation titled "Heatwave".
Suspended above a relaxed public seating area, Heatwave features a hovering square-shaped ceiling supported by chains from a central column. More than just a visual spectacle, the structure offers climate-responsive cooling, designed to make public space more habitable in a period of intensifying heatwaves.
Engineered by Mario Monotti with thermomechanical input from Alexander Puzrin, the installation explores modular climate infrastructure. While a geothermal well and solar chimney were originally proposed to create a self-sustaining microclimate, excavation wasn't feasible at the Biennale site - so mechanical ventilation was used instead to simulate the architect's intended cooling effect.
Accepting the award, pavilion commissioner Shaikh Khalifa Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa noted, "The term heatwave is a very common term we hear in the media, in news and even amongst our conversations at home. It is a stress to our urban centres and local communities, and the pavilion aimed to address those issues through an innovative technique."
Two other standout pavilions were also acknowledged by the jury.
The Holy See's 'Opera aperta' showcase, housed in a deconsecrated Venetian church in the Castello district, received a special mention for transforming the space into an evolving site of collective care, restoration, and dialogue, inspired by Italian philospher Umberto Eco's 1962 book "Open Work (Opera aperta)".
Part construction site, part community centre - over seven months, it will host restoration workshops, shared meals, and music rehearsals, bringing together international architects, local artisans, students, and social collectives.
And rather than concealing damage, the team will carefully trace the building's cracks, mold, and weathering - viewing them not as flaws, but as evidence of life, history, and possibility.
The British Pavilion also earned a special mention for its powerful examination of architecture and its links to colonisation.
Titled 'GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair', the exhibition is a UK-Kenya collaboration led by curators Kabage Karanja and Stella Mutegi (Cave_bureau, Nairobi), Owen Hopkins, and Professor Kathryn Yusoff, and seeks to explore whether architecture can shift from being an extractive force to one of repair and restitution.
"With the Great Rift Valley as the exhibition's geological and conceptual focus, we have brought together a series of installations that propose 'other architectures' defined by their relationship to the ground, their resistance to conventional, extractive ways of working, and that are resilient in the face of climate breakdown and social and political upheaval" says the curatorial team.
The Venice Architecture Biennale runs until 23 November 2025.
A Paris court today has found actor Gérard Depardieu guilty of having sexually assaulted two women on a 2021 film set, giving him an 18-month suspended prison sentence.
The actor, 76, has been convicted of having groped a 54-year-old costume designer and a 34-year-old assistant during the filming of Jean Becker's Les Volets Verts.
Depardieu, who has denied the accusations, didn't attend today's hearing.
The actor was also slapped with the additional penalty of a two-year disqualification from standing for election, as well as registration in the national automated database of sexual offenders.
In addition to non-material damages, Depardieu has been ordered to pay both women the sums of €1,000 and €2,000 for secondary victimisation. No fine of €20,000 as requested by the public prosecutor, however.
"I hope this is the end of impunity for an artist in the film industry," stated Carine Durrieu-Diebolt, the lawyer of one of the victims. "With this decision, we can no longer say (that Gérard Depardieu) is not a sexual abuser," she added. "My thoughts are with the other victims who are under the statute of limitations and with the four victims who took the stand."
Depardieu will appeal against his conviction for sexual assault, his lawyer Jérémie Assous announced after the hearing.
The case is widely seen as a key post- #MeToo test of how French society and its film industry address allegations of sexual misconduct involving prominent figures.
During the four-day trial in March, Depardieu rejected the accusations, saying he's 'not like that.' He acknowledged that he had used vulgar and sexualized language on the film set and that he grabbed the set designer's hips during an argument, but denied that his behavior was sexual.
Paris' public prosecutor had requested that Depardieu be found guilty and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of €20,000. The prosecutor denounced the actor's 'total denial and failure to question himself.'
Some figures in the French cinema world have expressed their support for Depardieu. Actors Vincent Perez and Fanny Ardant were among those who took seats on his side of the courtroom.
Depardieu has been accused publicly or in formal complaints of misconduct by more than 20 women, but so far only the sexual assault case has proceeded to court. Some other cases were dropped because of a lack of evidence or the statute of limitations.
The actor may have to face other legal proceedings soon.
In 2018, actor Charlotte Arnould accused him of raping her at his home. That case is still active, and in August 2024 prosecutors requested that it go to trial.