AquaPraça in Venice. Image Courtesy of CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati
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https://www.archdaily.com/1030643/cra-carlo-ratti-associati-and-howeler-plus-yoon-design-floating-plaza-to-be-transported-from-venice-biennale-to-cop30-in-brazil
CRA–Carlo Ratti Associati and Höweler + Yoon designed AquaPraça, a floating gathering space for global climate dialogue set to anchor COP30 in Belém, Brazil, making its debut at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia on 5 September 2025. It will then embark on a transatlantic journey to Brazil, where it will form part of the Italian Pavilion at COP30, held from November 10 to 21, 2025. Following the event, it is intended to become a permanent floating landmark in the Amazon as part of Belém’s cultural infrastructure.
AquaPraça in Venice. Image © DSL Studio
Described by its designers as a “cultural plaza,” AquaPraça seeks to harness responsive technologies and Archimedes’ principle to adapt to rising water levels and varying occupancy demands, exploring new relationships between architecture and water. The floating platform spans over 400 square meters (4,000 square feet) and is composed of a submersible structure that floats based on the principles of equilibrium, displacement, and buoyancy. Its balance system functions by holding and releasing water, continuously calibrating itself to maintain a minimal freeboard in relation to the surrounding water level. As a result, visitors will experience sea level fluctuations at eye level.
AquaPraça in Venice. Image © DSL Studio
Functionally, AquaPraça is conceived as a “civic catalyst” during global climate discussions. The platform can host over 150 people for exhibitions, workshops, symposia, and cultural events. The project was described as a “floating forum” by COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago, aligning closely with the conference’s vision. Carlo Ratti, curator of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, referenced Aldo Rossi‘s 1979 Teatro del Mondo, launched at the first Architecture Biennale. Meanwhile, J. Meejin Yoon, co-founder of Höweler + Yoon, described AquaPraça as “a platform, both literal and figurative, for deepening our collective understanding and experience of sea level rise and the impacts of climate change on global cities and communities.”
Related Article “Architecture is Survival”: In Conversation with Curator Carlo Ratti at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale 
AquaPraça in Venice. Image © DSL Studio
In 1979, Aldo Rossi launched the Teatro del Mondo at the first Biennale Architettura, positing that architecture could engage with the past. Today, AquaPraça shows how architecture can engage with the future, by responding to climate and engaging with nature rather than resisting it – Architect Carlo Ratti
AquaPraça is being launched in partnership with Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, as well as the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security. It is also supported by Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the World Bank’s Connect4Climate program, CIHEAM Bari, and several other partners and collaborators.
AquaPraça in Venice. Image © DSL Studio
AquaPraça in Venice. Image © DSL Studio
Other projects featured at this edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale also explore the relationship between water and architecture. These include the Uruguayan Pavilion, which proposes that we may be entering a new epoch, the “Hydrocene,” or age of water, and the Mexican Pavilion, which explores chinampas, a Mesoamerican floating agricultural system with a history spanning more than four thousand years. Beyond Venice, Danish maritime architecture studio MAST recently revealed a proposal for a new floating neighborhood in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Editor’s note: This article was first published on May 29, 2025, by Antonia Piñeiro and updated on September 5, 2025, to include new photographs of the project.