On Friday, the U.S. State Department announced that the University of Miami School of Architecture has been selected to commission the U.S. Pavilion at the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale. With highly awarded architect and designer Germane Barnes as lead curator, the exhibition will be titled “Earth Craft” and explore the relationship between American architecture, its makers, and materials (from brick to rammed earth, adobe, and concrete masonry).
Originally, Barnes intended to apply for the 2025 Architecture Biennale. “I have a university that has fully supported me from the beginning,” Barnes, Associate Professor and Director of the Master of Architecture Graduate Program at the University of Miami School of Architecture and principal of Studio Barnes, tells Surface. “Whenever my brain comes up with something, they say, ‘we will figure out a way to support you.’” Due to preparation for a university accreditation visit, he tabled the idea which had begun to take shape as he worked on his 2024 Art Institute of Chicago exhibition.