Qatar marks its first official participation at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 with Beyti Beytak. My Home is Your Home. La mia casa è la tua casa, presented by Qatar Museums and the future Art Mill Museum. The showcase, curated by Aurélien Lemonier and Sean Anderson, with assistant curator Virgile Alexandre, will be open to the public until 23 November 2025.
Beyti Beytak examines the notion of home as a universal cultural value, expressed through the traditions of hospitality, care, and belonging that define architectural and urban practices across the MENASA region. Through a collection of architectural projects, archival materials, and site-specific installations, the Pavilion proposes the home as a refuge and a collective responsibility, a place where cultures meet and social ties are sustained. Developed by the Cookies studio, the design concept of the exhibition draws on architectural screens (mashrabiya, jali, claustra). Their porous geometries mediate between interior and exterior, public and private, intimacy and openness.
The showcase is organised around thematic typologies (oases, city housing, community centres, mosques, museums, and gardens) and unfolds across two sites. At the Giardini della Biennale, stands Community Centre (2024) by Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari, who is known for her zero-carbon and humanitarian approach. It is a bamboo structure with a domed form, a wide perimeter veranda, and a palm-frond roof which embodies the values of resourcefulness, resilience, and social care that run throughout the exhibition.
The second part of the project is hosted at ACP–Palazzo Franchetti. It gathers the work of over thirty architects who have shaped the built environment of the MENASA region. Here, visitors can explore a special section devoted to Doha which features restored doors from the city’s old houses, conserved in collaboration with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
Among the voices represented at ACP–Palazzo Franchetti are, for example, Indian architect Raj Rewal, Pakistani architect Nayyar Ali Dada, and Egyptian architect Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil, alongside contemporary practitioners such as Marina Tabassum from Bangladesh, Abeer Seikaly from Jordan, DAAZ Studio from Iran, and Sumaya Dabbagh from Saudi Arabia. Their works are placed in dialogue with the influence of renowned Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy, whose advocacy for vernacular techniques and community-oriented design continues to inspire the region.
Beyti Beytak affirms Qatar’s commitment to amplifying voices from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, while announcing the creation of a permanent national pavilion in the Giardini. It situates the home at the centre of contemporary debates on community, resilience, and belonging, and offers an architectural lens through which to imagine a more hospitable and interconnected future.
To learn more about Beyti Beytak, please visit the official website of Qatar Museums.
You might also be interested in exploring Pressure Cooker by the National Pavilion UAE and The Um Slaim School: An Architecture of Connection by the National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia.
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