Venice Architecture Biennale: Designs of Resilient Landscapes for Flood-Prone Areas of Antananarivo
10 May – 23 November 2025 | 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
The project “Designs of Resilient Landscapes for Flood-Prone Areas of Antananarivo” is exhibited at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Carlo Ratti, from May 10 to November 23, 2025, at the main venue in the Arsenale. Developed by ETH architecture students using innovative modelling and simulation techniques, the project is coordinated by Dr. Philipp Urech in collaboration with Prof. Em. Christophe Girot, Prof. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey, and Nicolas Salliou, as part of the Future Cities Laboratory Global. Set in Antananarivo, Madagascar, the project investigates how ground operates as the primary infrastructure of human settlement. In the urban village of Anosizato, three historical polders – originally shaped to manage seasonal floods and droughts – are increasingly threatened by brick extraction and informal urban growth.
The exhibited designs propose spatial strategies for flood resilience and adaptive land use, grounded in vernacular knowledge. Based on a topological understanding of the landscape, the proposals are woven into existing systems rather than replacing them. Leveraging precision modelling, the approach enables site-specific interventions that strengthen the inherent logic of the landscape – strengthening rather than overwriting it.
Organisation
ChairPlanning of Landscape and Urban Systems (PLUS): Prof. Dr. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey, Dr. Nicolas Salliou
Chair forLandscape Architecture; Prof. em Christophe Girot
Contact: Dr. Philipp Urech