The Bullicante Lake ex Snia of Rome at the Venice Biennale

The area of ​​Lake Bullicante (formerly Snia) in Rome is the protagonist of the Austrian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, which opens tomorrow, May 10. The space was presented today by architect Lorenzo Romito who, together with Sabine Pollak, Michael Obrist, curates the Austrian pavilion. The mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig, was present. The experience of the lake area is included in the focus on Rome of the pavilion at the Venice Biennale with the title "Agency for a better living".

"Lago Bullicante - explain the curators - is an example of co-evolution between a neighborhood community and a spontaneous process of renaturalization of a former viscose factory, where in 1992, an attempt to illegally build a shopping center caused the rupture of the water table and the creation of a natural lake. The efforts of the local community to protect this place from speculation have led to this unique natural environment being recognized as a Natural Monument".

The exhibition uses the symmetry of the pavilion designed by Josef Hoffmann. From the entrance, visitors are led directly into the courtyard through the central corridor, which is specially closed on the sides. They can choose what to visit first: Vienna on one side, Rome on the other. The exchange between the cities and their mutual learning takes place in the courtyard of the pavilion, where a platform - the "negotiation space" - invites discussion and exchange. Both sections begin with a film that tells the "mythical" history of both cities, the two different approaches to housing, land policies and urban space. They then enter the two large exhibition rooms, where the working groups for Vienna and Rome present the different situations analyzed and the research themes, on the history, forms of organization, initiatives and spaces of living in the two cities.