Twelve Young Architects Begin Venice Biennale College Workshop

Twelve emerging architects selected from ten countries began a workshop in Venice this September as part of Biennale College Architettura, the training and mentorship programme run by La Biennale di Venezia, with selections announced by 20 July 2026 following a June application deadline.

A path to the main exhibition

The selected practitioners, all under 30, come from China, Croatia, Italy, Mexico, Syria, Spain, Turkey, Tunisia, the United States and Hungary. Under the programme’s rules, each accepted participant receives lodging, meals and economy-class travel to Venice for the workshop, and can be awarded a grant of up to €25,000 to develop their project between the workshop and an April 2027 completion deadline. Biennale College will ultimately support up to four of the twelve projects through to completion, and those selected will be exhibited outside the main competition at the 20th International Architecture Exhibition, running in Venice from May to November 2027.

Between the September workshop and the 2027 exhibition, the Biennale College team monitors and supports the shortlisted projects remotely, a structure intended to give participants sustained mentorship rather than a single intensive week followed by silence, before the strongest projects are chosen for the final public showing. The programme sits alongside Biennale College strands for dance, theatre, music and cinema, all run on a similar model of open calls followed by funded development periods, reflecting La Biennale di Venezia’s broader push to fold talent development into its year-round activities rather than confining it to the exhibition years themselves.

Why It Matters

The Venice Architecture Biennale is one of the field’s most closely watched international showcases, but access to it has traditionally run through established practices and national pavilions. Biennale College gives architects still early in their careers, including several from countries with limited representation in past editions, a funded route to develop and exhibit work on the same stage, without needing an established studio or a national pavilion behind them.