HEART & SOIL

The Philippine Pavilion examines soil as matter and metaphor at the Venice Architecture Biennale

- IGAN D'BAYAN

VENICE, Italy — If your conception of a large-scale architectural showcase was mainly about building, constructing, putting things together, or academic parables about steel and stone, then this pavilion will surprise you. Here, the spotlight falls not on the finished edifice but on what lies beneath: the corpus, the foundation, the living earth from which all architecture draws breath.

Such was the quiet power of our visit to the Philippine Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition (Biennale Architettura 2025) set in Italy's luminous, floating city.

The Philippine Pavilion exhibition "Soil-beings (Lamánlupa)" — housed at the Artiglierie in the Arsenale — emerged from a deep collaboration between curator Renan Laru-an and interdisciplinary artist Christian Tenefrancia Illi. The two sought to blur the boundaries between disciplines, departing from traditional exhibition forms to explore how artistic, scientific and architectural practices can intersect around a common material: soil.

Their goal was not to propose solutions, but to challenge foundational ideas of architecture by engaging with the elemental material of construction —soil— as both substance and symbol, matter and metaphor. Instead of designing a static architectural structure, they focused on "perspective, consciousness and relationships."

"From the start, Christian and I agreed: we didn't want a didactic or overly intellectual installation," explained Renan Laru-an. "We wanted something people could feel — something immersive, time-based and grounded in experience. Instead of proposing architectural solutions, we focused on shifting perspectives. The foundation we wanted to transform was consciousness itself — how we relate to land, to each other, to the structures around us."