Venice Architecture Biennale with “Team Stress Test” Professors Elisabeth Endres and Gabriele Kiefer on the Board of Trustees of the German Pavilion
Two academics from Technische Universität Braunschweig have been elected to the Board of Trustees for the German Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. Professor Elisabeth Endres, head of the Institute for Building Climatology and Energy in Architecture, and Professor Gabriele Kiefer, head of the Institute for Landscape Architecture, are part of the “Stress Test Team”. The curatorial team, which also includes Professor Daniele Santucci of Climateflux and RWTH Aachen University, and Nicola Borgmann of Architekturgalerie München, is concerned with the effects of increasing heat caused by climate change on our living environment.
The German Pavilion. Photo credit: cfk Clemens Kusch Architekten
“Team Stresstest” submitted its concept in an open competition organised by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development and has now been selected by a nine-member commission of experts.
The exhibition concept addresses a highly topical issue: the increasing overheating of cities and nature and its threatening effects on humans, animals and plants. In the future, temperatures could reach levels far beyond what is tolerable. This extreme heat will also damage infrastructure such as roads and buildings. The curatorial team’s proposal aims to make the urgency of the problem tangible and palpable.
The two professors, Elisabeth Endres and Gabriele Kiefer, also deal with this issue in their teaching of architecture at the TU Braunschweig, for example in their work on the climate-friendly redesign of the campus or in student designs on urban climate.
Climate-adapted urban development
Federal Minister of Construction Klara Geywitz emphasises the relevance of the project: “With its contribution, Team Stresstest addresses the issue of adapting our built environment to overheating, which is much discussed in politics and among experts. The curators want visitors to the German Pavilion to experience the urgency of this issue. How does heat affect our lives in public spaces? How can we protect ourselves from heat and implement climate-adapted urban development?”
The International Architecture Biennale in Venice, which takes place every two years, is the world’s most important exhibition for new developments in architecture, town planning and urban development. The detailed exhibition concept “Stress Test” will be presented in early 2025. The 19th Venice Architecture Biennale will take place from 10 May to 23 November 2025. The director of the Biennale is the Italian architect and urban planner Carlo Ratti, who has given the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale the title “Intelligent. Natural. Artificial. Collective”.