Line drawing of a building in the style of a Roman temple on a colorful background.
02/05/2025 | Godelmann | 5 min

GODELMANN goes Biennale

The world of architecture is looking to Venice: at the 19th Architecture Biennale, the German Pavilion is focusing on one of the most pressing issues of our time - how cities have to deal with extreme heat.
Saturday, 10 May 2025 at 10:00 – Sunday, 23 November 2025 at 11:00
Official website of the Biennale
"La Biennale" step drawing on a white building, in the style of a Roman temple

The Biennale's main theme: nature, technology and society

Carlo Ratti, the curator of the Biennale 2025, has chosen "Intelligens: Natural, Artificial, Collective" as the theme for the 19th architecture exhibition. His thesis: the built environment is one of the main causes of global CO₂ emissions, but also a key lever for sustainable change. The combination of natural, artificial and collective knowledge systems is crucial here. This is precisely where the German Pavilion STRESSTEST comes in and shows how interdisciplinary collaboration can lead to real solutions.

The German Pavilion:
Urban heat islands - when cities become uninhabitable
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Under the title STRESSTEST the team of curators, Nicola Borgmann, Elisabeth Endres, Gabriele G. Kiefer and Daniele Santucci, are staging a powerful examination of the consequences of the climate crisis. Visitors experience first-hand what heat stress feels like in an urban environment - and why our

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built environment urgently needs to be rethought. The exhibition concept makes the effects of climate change immediately tangible - and at the same time shows solutions: How do we protect ourselves from heat? How do we design climate-adapted cities that are also aesthetically pleasing?

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We are delighted that GODELMANN are part of this article. Because it's clear to us:
If you build today, you have to think about the future. And that starts right here!

Thermal image of a square in Munich where many people are out and about. The square is particularly hot.
Thermal image of Munich | © Stresstest, Photo: Gustav Götze

Two contrasting areas: Stress and Destress

The exhibition concept divides the German Pavilion into two contrasting areas: STRESS and DESTRESS. In the STRESS rooms, visitors experience the unbearable reality of extreme heat at close quarters. In contrast to this are the DESTRESS rooms. Here, the curators present counter-designs to heat-stressed cities: green infrastructures, intelligent cooling technologies, climate-friendly architecture and innovative solutions.

A solution: multifunctional spaces with the GDM.KLIMASTEIN

The GDM.KLIMASTEIN is an infiltration-capable paving block with so-called proActive functions. It consists of a catalyst layer, which reduces air pollutants, a storage layer, which retains water, and a capillary layer, which conducts water from the superstructure into the storage layer.

Further information about our climate stone

Graphic showing how the GDM.KLIMASTEIN works. Water seeps away, is stored and evaporates.

Facts about the Biennale

  • Event: 19th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia
  • Contribution: German Pavilion - STRESSTEST
  • Curators: Nicola Borgmann, Elisabeth Endres, Gabriele G. Kiefer, Daniele Santucci
  • Location: Giardini della Biennale, Venice
  • Duration: May 10 - November 23, 2025
  • Preview days: May 8 and 9, 2025
  • Opening of the German Pavilion: May 9, 2025
  • Organizer: Architekturgalerie München e.V. on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building
  • Website: www.stresstest.world

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