Internalities
Spanish Pavilion
19th Venice Biennale, IT
2025
The Spanish Pavilion responds to Carlo Ratti’s suggestion to provide “a place, a solution” to the climate crisis through a word that does not exist: Internalities. Through this concept, the exhibition explores how architects can (and must) minimize the environmental externalities associated with production processes in order to move toward the decarbonization of construction. Internalities highlights the work of a new generation of Spanish architects whose practices are characterized by the use of local, regenerative, and low-carbon-footprint resources. Collectively, they contribute to deepening the regional ecologies of materials such as wood, stone, and earth, as well as the forests, quarries, and soils from which they come. These works thus generate new territorial balances and develop new agreements between ecologies and economies.
The term Internality stands in contrast to the notion of Externality. The latter was coined in 1920 by economist Arthur Pigou and refers to the environmental repercussions that are not accounted for in standard production processes. The construction sector generates externalities when we extract Materials, burn Energy, displace local Labor, generate Residues, and release Emissions. These externalities create a serious imbalance between the buildings we construct and the territories we impact. Combined, they account for 37% of global CO₂ emissions. Fostering Internalities is a radical way to drastically cut this percentage.
The exhibition is organized around a central introductory room and five peripheral rooms, each presenting a research theme. The central room, Balance, includes 16 recent architectural works that demonstrate the progress made in Spain toward decarbonizing construction and generating territorial balance. The peripheral rooms explore five axes of internality that contribute to decarbonization in Spain: Materials, Energy, Labor, Residues, and Emissions. Each axis has been explored by a team of local architects and photographers who studied a specific territory and resource within the Spanish landscape.
︎︎︎For more info: www.internalities.eu
Curators:
Roi Salgueiro
Manuel Bouzas
Commissioner:
MIVAU Government of Spain, AC/E, AECID.
In collaboration with:
FINSA, Arquia Foundation
Contributors:
Abalo Alonso, Natura Futura, Bamba Studio, BeAr, Bosch. Capdeferro, Branco del Río, Camps Felip Arquitecturia, López Rivera, H arquitectes, Isla, Josep Ferrando, Pedro García, Mar Puig, Manel Casellas, KAUH, Munarq, Peris+Toral, Sergio Sebastián, TAKK, Ted’A, Daniel Ibáñez, Carla Ferrer, María Azkarate, Aurora Armental, Stefano Ciurlo, Luis Díaz Díaz, Anna Bach, Eugeni Bach, Caterina Barjau, Lucas Muñoz, Ana Amado, Carles Oliver, David Mayol, Milena Villalba,
Visual Identity:
Miguel Angel Quiroga
Photographer:
Luis Díaz Díaz
