The University of Miami School of Architecture will represent the United States at the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale, the State Department announced. Architect Germane Barnes was selected as lead curator, and he will work with architectural historian Vyta Pivo to develop the Earth Craft U.S. Pavilion. The exhibition looks at the materials, building traditions, and often-overlooked labor behind American architecture, and it will be staged in Venice as the country’s national presentation.
Earth Craft follows the journey of building materials from the ground to the built environment, which gives the show its title and its structure. It examines brick, rammed earth, adobe, and concrete masonry, all materials that start as soil dug and shaped by hand. Barnes puts the idea plainly: “Most of the buildings we celebrate were made from ground somebody dug, shaped, and fired, and we rarely ask who did that or what they knew.” He adds that “Earth Craft represents the United States through its makers and not through its icons.”
Germane Barnes and Vyta Pivo. Image credit: Benedetto Rebecca for the University of Miami School of Architecture
The two curators bring different strengths to that premise. Barnes is an associate professor and the director of the Master of Architecture Graduate Program at the University of Miami School of Architecture, and he founded Studio Barnes. His practice centers on architecture’s relationship to identity, history, and social life, and his accolades include the Harvard GSD Wheelwright Prize, Rome Prize, USA Fellowship, and the Architectural League Prize. Pivo, an architectural historian and curator at the same school, contributes a research-driven view of material culture and the people behind construction.
Pivo frames the exhibition as a tribute to workers whose names rarely appear in the history of buildings. “The exhibition will honor the brick masons, workers and tradespeople whose labor built this country and rarely gets credited for it,” she said. She also stresses that this knowledge is still current: “Their knowledge of soil, water and heat is not a relic, and we are putting it in the same building as robotic fabrication and computational design, because the new tools work best when they learn from the hands that came first.”
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Several featured designers will join Barnes in the pavilion, which widens the exhibition beyond its two curators. The list includes Nader Tehrani of NADAAA, Carie Penabad and Adib Cúre of CÚRE & PENABAD Architecture and Urban Design, and Rodolphe el-Khoury, dean of the University of Miami School of Architecture and principal of RAD-Lab. Multidisciplinary practitioner Leah Wulfman and the landscape and urban design practice Merritt Chase are also taking part, while Maxwell Jarosz will work with University of Miami students on an installation for the pavilion’s exterior courtyard.
The pavilion will also work as a place to learn about earthen construction throughout the Biennale, beyond what hangs on its walls. Visitors will find a library of natural building materials and hands-on fabrication workshops, so the subject of rammed earth construction and its relatives can be handled directly. This emphasis on material and labor connects with the direction set by the 2027 Biennale’s artistic directors, the Chinese architects Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu.
Their theme, Do Architecture: For the Possibility of Coexistence Facing a Real Reality, calls for a return to architecture as a hands-on practice, with attention to local materials, traditional craftsmanship, and the realities of construction. The 20th International Architecture Exhibition will run from May 8 to November 21, 2027, across the Giardini, the Arsenale, and other venues in Venice.
Jane Doe is an American architectural editor with a deep-rooted passion for design and the built environment. She holds a degree in Architecture from Columbia University, where she developed a strong foundation in both architectural theory and urban studies. With over a decade of editorial experience, Jane specializes in shaping content that bridges architecture, urbanism, and cultural discourse. Her work spans leading design publications, exhibition texts, and digital platforms, where she is known for her clear, engaging narratives and her ability to translate complex spatial ideas for a broad audience. Jane is particularly interested in issues of equity, sustainability, and the evolving role of cities in a changing world.