Whether heavy rain or heat, floods or drought: is no longer a rarity — and this applies to the entire globe.
Scientists have said that Europe, which is warming the fastest due to man-made climate change, counted more than 60,000 excess deaths due to heat in 2022.
In 2023, there were more than 47,000 heat-related deaths. Most of these people had underlying health conditions, but the hot temperatures placed additional strain on their bodies.
And 2024 was Earth’s warmest year since modern record-keeping began, and the past 10 consecutive years have been the warmest 10 on record.
Architects and urban planners can no longer ignore these figures. “To address a burning world, architecture must harness the full intelligence around us,” says Carlo Ratti, curator of the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, which is on show from May 10 to November 23. The Turin-born architect add that our approach to building must adapt now — not at some point in the future.
The theme of the biennale, “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective,” refers to the challenges we face and “invites different types of intelligence to work together to rethink the built environment,” Ratti points out. “The very Latin title Intelligens contains the word ‘gens’ (‘people’) — inviting us to experiment beyond today’s limited focus on AI and digital technologies.”
The curator also notes that the building world needs to pool its strengths and knowledge from all of its actors — from the construction industry to architects to urban planning. “Architecture needs to reach out across generations and across disciplines — from the hard sciences to the arts,” he adds.
Sealed cities are heating up
The greatest concern is the overheating of urban areas, caused by the fact that cities are heavily sealed, covered by concrete and asphalt surfaces. There are too few trees to provide shade and help cool them. Heat islands emerge, leading to overheating.
During heavy rain, sealed surfaces prevent water from seeping into the ground. The sewage systems collapse. A vicious circle.
So, what can be done? “The problems are known, solutions have long been on the table,” says Peter Cachola Schmal, director of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt, “but implementation is lacking. We’re too slow!”
He cites Paul-Arnsberg-Platz in Frankfurt’s Ostend district as an example. Once feared for its oven-like climate, the square has since been redesigned and rebuilt, and now the paved area is dotted by flowerbeds and young trees. The city of Frankfurt calls it an “urgently needed climate adaptation.”
Schmal is still not convinced; he finds the project half-hearted: “Yes, the trees will cast decent shade — in 30 years!”
The Paris transportation revolution
Climate adaptation is definitely on the agenda. Municipalities — and taxpayers — will be required to invest a lot of money to achieve this. And what’s often lacking is quick, unbureaucratic decision-making.
Paris, which suffered a particularly high number of heat-related deaths, is seen as a model. Mayor Anne Hidalgo responded to the crisis by implementing a radical transportation revolution in her city. She reduced traffic in the city center, tripled parking fees for SUVs, and unsealed street parking spaces and converted them into breathable green spaces.
Hidalgo’s green push has angered some Parisian drivers, but she has also received widespread praise across Europe.
Meanwhile, other cities like Copenhagen and Rotterdam are transforming themselves into flood-resistant “” — also exemplary in this regard.
Elisabeth Endres, professor of building technology at the University of Braunschweig, calls for nothing less than a global “construction revolution.” Together with Munich architect Nicola Borgmann, landscape architect Gabriele G. Kiefer and architect Daniele Santucci, she is curating Germany’s Biennale pavillion.
Anyone entering the German Pavilion at the Lido can experience firsthand what the future urban climate will feel like: hot, oppressive, dangerous. “Stress Test” is the name of the immersive exhibition, which is accompanied by a film collage, a wealth of information and artwork, including a video work by Christoph Brech in which a bell rings as a warning.
Climate change for the eye
The message seems to have already reached many people.
In Frankfurt, for example, climate activists of all ages have taken up urban farming. As self-proclaimed “vegetable heroes,” they cultivate traffic islands and other green spaces, growing fruit and vegetables.
Signs on Berlin’s city trees, pleading “Water me!,” are inviting citizens to contribute to climate protection.
Climate-friendly construction has long been a topic of museum exhibitions.
For example, the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt will be presenting a whole series of successful projects starting in June, as part of the exhibition: “Architecture and Energy: Building in Times of Climate Change.”
Will the Architecture Biennale be enough to spark a new beginning? “The impetus will come quite automatically,” curator Elisabeth Endres tells DW — because “we will suffer,” she adds, as the impact of global warming will be felt by everyone. Action will inevitably need to be taken quickly.
“Cities that have prepared well will emerge from this well. Others won’t,” says co-curator Nicola Borgmann, who directs the Munich Architecture Gallery. “There is already hope that things will change — but it just needs to be much faster, otherwise European cities will no longer be habitable in a few decades.”
This article was originally written in German.
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