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The installation "The Architecture of Virtual Water" at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2025

May 8, 2025

Jampel Dell’Angelo and Benedetta Tagliabue present an immersive installation on the invisibility of water at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2025

The installation "The Architecture of Virtual Water" will be exhibited at Corderie in Arsenale, Venice from May 10th to November 23rd 2025, before moving to Barcelona in December.

Jampel Dell’Angelo – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Miralles Tagliabue - EMBT Architects have been selected for the 19th Venice Biennale of Architecture with an immersive installation titled "The Architecture of Virtual Water", that invites visitors to rethink our relationship with water as a vital resource.

The theme of this edition, "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective." explores how different types of intelligence work together to rethink the built environment.

At the core of the installation “The Architecture of Virtual Water” stands the transdisciplinary team, of Jampel Dell’Angelo (Science and Concept), Benedetta Tagliabue (Architecture), Yeshi Silvano namkhai (Music) and Ati Sphere (Digital Visual Arts).

Jampel Dell’Angelo and Benedetta Tagliabue - present a work that combines architectural design, environmental awareness, musical composition and interactive technology to raise consciousness on the importance of water.

The Architecture of Virtual Water pavilion consists of a wooden skeleton, shaping the word AQUA (Latin for Water), paper walls made of dismissed filter paper, worked by hand to achieve the shaped walls, and an interactive installation on the inside composed by Music and Digital Visuals that complete a narrative based on years of scientific research.

Jampel Dell’Angelo, co-author of the project and Associate Professor of Water Governance and Politics at Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, developed a narrative based on four key dimensions of water invisibility. "The installation aims to make visible the invisible raising awareness on the value and crisis of our global water resources", says Dell’Angelo.

"We wanted to experiment with fragile materials like paper to create a sustainable, lightweight pavilion that almost disappears", explains Benedetta Tagliabue, Head Architect and Co-founder of EMBT Architects. "We enjoy taking risks, researching, and trying new things. It might fail, yes, but if it works, it could open the door to a new way of making architecture".

“The Architecture of Virtual Water”

Designed using recyclable and low-impact materials such as paper and natural wood, the installation embraces the idea of circularity: it has been conceived to be dismantled and reused after its presentation in Venice. Also the elaboration and manipulation of the material followed this concept by utilizing exclusively solar power for the machinery.

From May 10 to November 23, 2025, it will be open to the public at the Biennale before traveling to Barcelona in December, where it will continue to foster dialogue through exhibitions, symposia, and public activities.

The concept is rooted in w a t e r s p a c e spinoff of the Water Governance network NEWAVE, a platform developed by Dell’Angelo and Tagliabue which aims to stimulate international debate on urgent water issues that shape our socio-hydrological world; focusing on artistic engagements, scientific interactions and political interfaces with water.

About Jampel Dell’Angelo

Jampel Dell’Angelo, Phd is an Associate Professor of Water Governance and Politics at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He serves as the General Director of the Dutch Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE). Leads the European Commission funded research network NEWAVE on water governance and is the Editor-in-Chief of the international scientific journal World Development. With expertise on the political economy and political ecology of natural resources, his research prevalently focusses the multilevel dimensions of cooperation and conflict over freshwater resources. Believing in the necessity to conduct true interdisciplinary research to tackle complex water governance and water justice issues, he draws on a socio-environmental integrative approach which combines expertise from different fields and disciplines.

About Miralles Tagliabue – EMBT

Miralles Tagliabue – EMBT Architects is an architecture studio founded 1994 in Barcelona by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue. Internationally renowned, the studio is recognized for its innovative approach, contextual sensitivity, and strong poetic and social dimension. Among its most iconic projects are the Scottish Parliament Building, the Spanish Pavilion at Expo Shanghai 2010, and the renovation of Santa Caterina Market in Barcelona. Following Enric Miralles’ passing in 2000, Benedetta Tagliabue assumed leadership, consolidating a philosophy that merges sustainability, local identity, and formal exploration. With projects across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, EMBT approaches each project as an opportunity to connect architecture, landscape and society, maintaining a strong commitment to responsible design and innovation.

About Yeshi Namkhai

Yeshi Namkhai is a composer born in Italy with training and working experience in photography, cinematography and IT for medium-sized businesses. Today he completes his training in electronic music at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory of Music in Florence and composes music on the computer. He loves all forms of music, especially live ones and those that make you think and fully experience the present. He uses real-world sounds, synthesized sounds and musical instruments, collaborates with musicians, but does not use conventional or commercial technology, but rather creates them on the computer and brings them to life in specially created sound environments. In each composition he puts himself and all that he has learned about the world.

About Ati Sphere

Ati Sphere is a digital artist and director who has mastered the art of creating immersive, interactive installations sculptures. His unique creative process involves designing generative installations that respond instantly to viewer movement through projection mapping. This fusion of visual art and kinetic experiences creates an environment where viewers become active participants in the artwork, shaping its form and dynamics through their own movements. Past 10 years his projection mapping creations amazes audiences around Europe, by transforming static architecture in the ever-changing displays of light.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF VIRTUAL WATER

Jampel Dell'Angelo, Science and Concept
Benedetta Tagliabue - EMBT, Architecture
Yeshi Silvano Namkhai, Music Composition
Ati Sphere, Interactive Digital Media Creation and Direction

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