Lina Ghotmeh Selected to Design Qatar Pavilion at Venice Biennale
Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture has won an international competition to design the permanent Qatar Pavilion in the Giardini of La Biennale di Venezia. When built, it will be just the third new national pavilion added to the Giardini in the last half-century.
This week's announcement from H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani,
chair of Qatar Museums, comes ten months after Qatar Museums signed a Protocol of Cooperation with the Municipality of Venice. At that time, in June 2024, Al-Mayassa described the future pavilion as “advancing our role as a global leader in cultural diplomacy and providing an unparalleled platform for giving voice to the creative talent of our nation and the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia region.” The subsequent design competition has been won by the firm of Lebanon-born, Paris-based architect Lina Ghotmeh, who “wholeheartedly embraced our vision for the Qatar Pavilion,” in Al-Mayassa's words.
While no images accompanied this week's announcement of Ghotmeh as winner of the competition, the design is described in a statement as a “thoughtful response to the Pavilion’s historic context, creating a cultural bridge between Qatar and the global community.” Furthermore, “the design blends seamlessly with the Pavilion’s immediate landscape and the larger environment,” and, “taking into account the contemporary art and architecture that it will house, the interior will be flexible and adaptable, enabling exhibitors to transform the space into their own creative visions.” And although no timeline for the Qatar Pavilion's construction was included in the announcement, once built it will be just the second new pavilion at the Giardini this century, following the completion of Denton Corker Marshall's design for the Australia Pavilion in 2015.
With 66 national pavilions included in this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, fewer than half of those nations have standalone pavilions in the Giardini—many of the pavilions are fitted into spaces in various buildings at the Arsenale, and some are spread across the city of Venice. With very few places to build and still have the Giardini still be park-like, the Qatar Pavilion will be built on Spazio Esedra, an empty space immediately east of the Book Pavilion, the linear building capped by a copper roof that was designed by James Stirling in 1991. The space has been used often for gatherings where the Golden Lion and other awards were given, though in the most recent Venice Architecture Biennale it was home to a landform component of the Ukraine Pavilion.
Some events related to the Qatar Pavilion are planned to coincide with the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, which takes place from May 10 to November 25. Community Centre, an installation by Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari, will be on the site of the future Qatar Pavilion. It will be part of Beyti Beytak. My home is your home. La mia casa è la tua casa., an exhibition at both the Giardini and ACP-Palazzo Franchetti, featuring works by more than twenty modern and contemporary architects from the MENASA region. Lastly, a conversation between H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa and Lina Ghotmeh, moderated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, will take place at ACP-Palazzo Franchetti on May 8.