Assembly: Ireland At Venice 2025

To assemble is to gather together as a group of people with a common interest. To assemble is to construct a whole from constituent parts. As both congregation and construction, assembly is at the heart of the architectural process.

Curated by Carlo Ratti, the national pavilions at the Biennale were asked to bring one local solution to the problems facing our world: say, climate change, or the rise of AI, or growing rates of inequality. Ireland’s pavilion approached that request from a slightly oblique angle. We cannot just depend on architects, engineers, or other experts to provide these solutions, we argue. They must emerge from, and be tested through, conversations with the widest possible public. All of us have a stake in these urgent problems, and all of us must have a say in how we solve them. This requires people coming together freely to pool knowledge, exchange ideas, and debate proposals for our collective future. It requires, in other words, assembly.

Assembly is the result of an interdisciplinary collaborative process between Cotter & Naessens Architects, sound artist David Stalling, architect and poet Michelle Delea, curator Luke Naessens, and woodworker Alan Meredith. Inspired by the innovative political model of the Citizens’ Assembly, the design is a multi-sensory installation that offers visitors a soundscape to be inhabited and a space to be heard. 

Ireland at Venice is an initiative of Culture Ireland in partnership with the Arts Council. The national tour of Ireland at Venice is supported by the Arts Council to promote architecture to audiences in Ireland. Supported by RIAI, Cork City Council, Dublin City Council, Jacobs Engineering, Laois County Council, CCAE, United Hardware, Henry J Lyons, and Embassy of Ireland (Italy).