The Argentinian Pavilion at the upcoming 19th Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 will showcase 'Siestario,' the winning project by architects Juan Manuel Pachué and Marco Zampieron, with Brian Ejsmont as a collaborator. Both architects, graduates of the Faculty of Architecture, Planning, and Design at the National University of Rosario, are also co-founders of Cooperativa, a space dedicated to organizing architecture competitions. Currently, Pachué and Zampieron practice professionally and teach in the city of Rosario, Argentina.
The selected project was the result of an open competition organized by the Directorate of Cultural Affairs of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chamber of Urban Developers (CEDU), in collaboration with the Argentine Agency for Investments and International Trade (AAICI). The proposal was selected by a jury composed of architect Bárbara Berson, representing the Argentine Federation of Architects' Associations (FADEA); architect Daniela Bergaizen, representing the Argentine Agency for Investments and International Trade (AAICI); and architects Gerardo Caballero, Marcelo Faiden, and Mariano Clusellas, representing CEDU. This project will represent the country at the Venice Biennale, which will take place from May 10 to November 23, 2025.
With general curatorship by Carlo Ratti and titled "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective," the Biennale will focus on the “interconnectedness” of architecture with diverse disciplines, such as art, engineering, biology, data science, and social sciences, all playing a role in shaping the built environment. In this context, the 'Siestario' project presents itself as a reflection on the relationship between architecture and time. This space not only serves as a refuge but also invites visitors to experience a momentary interruption in their journey, where time is suspended, and the experience of the 'siesta' becomes a metaphor for pause and connection.
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Throughout the room, an inflated and extended silo-bag invades the space, decontextualized from its original function. It retains its essence while resignifying its purpose. Its surreal and strange presence evokes a remnant of another reality: a vestige of the Argentine economy, a fragment suspended in memory. The silo becomes a support for sleep; a soft plastic mattress, immobile, where bodies sink. In the very act of resting, a transition to sleep begins, toward another, undefined time. In this state, the dreamlike permeates the space: desires occupy the walls, filter between bodies, and suspend in the air. The atmosphere transforms into a landscape, where the possible and the uncertain coexist in the indeterminate. — Excerpt from the project’s presentation by the authors.
A reproduction of the silo bag, a temporary storage system widely used in agriculture and a symbol of the Argentine countryside and economy, repurposed and re-signified, will serve as a device for resting the body. In the context of the pavilion and amidst the dynamism of an exhibition like the Biennale, it will offer a space to rest, temporarily pausing the journey and, in essence, taking a 'siesta.' Conceived as a space for collective leisure, the project will also include images, drawings, and blurred photographs, arranged without a chronological order or apparent logic.
Among the other finalist projects in the Argentine competition were 'Inventos Colectivos' by Leonardo Rota, which received the first mention, and the proposal 'Instantes de luz' by Joaquín Alarcia, Federico Ferrer Deheza, and Franco Gramaglia, which received the second mention. Several other countries have also announced their participation in the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. Among them, the Belgian Pavilion will present a project curated by landscape architect Bas Smets focused on architecture through the lens of plant intelligence, while Brazil's proposal led by the Plano Coletivo group aims to open a dialogue on the role of architecture as both a cultural artifact and a tool for addressing global challenges.
