Photograph by Timothy Hursley.
The Organizers of the U.S. Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia have announced the selection of 52 projects to feature in PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity.
The selected finalists reflect diverse contributions from architects, landscape architects, designers, artists, nonprofits, and individuals from across the U.S. and its territories. Each project showcases built work from the 21st century that demonstrates architectural and design merits while expressing the U.S. Pavilion’s PORCH theme, as well as that of the Biennale Architettura 2025, Intelligens: Natural. Artificial. Collective. The participants will receive a stipend to further develop their proposals into exhibition-ready formats.
“The collaborative jury process affirmed the power of the American porch as a design concept that resonates with all types of communities and fosters positive connections,” said Austen Barron Bailly, Chief Curator, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Momentary. “The selected porches’ aesthetic allure and civic vision reveal the spirit of invitation essential for the people who activate these spaces, and they promise to create a lively and transporting exhibition for the U.S. Pavilion.”
Civic PORCH by Studio James Carpenter / JCDA Inc. and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc.
The 52 winning finalists are:
Architecture for Public Benefit Atelier Mey
atelierjones
Auburn University’s Rural Studio brg3s architects
Brightmoor Maker Space Brooks + Scarpa Chibbernoonie
CLB Architects
Coles House Project
ColoradoBuildingWorkshop at CU Denver
Cunningham | Quill Architects
Danielle Hatch
David Baker Architects
de Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop
Detroit Collaborative Design Center, Et. al Collaborative, Inside Southwest Detroit DUST
Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects
El Dorado
Eskew+Dumez+Ripple
Figure
Fred Carl Jr. Small Town Center at Mississippi State University
Friends Of Residential Treasures: Los Angeles
Gulf Coast Community Design Studio
Jerome Haferd Studio
Johnson Fain
Jones Studio
Katherine Hogan Architects
Lake|Flato + Matsys
Letter J
Mark Cavagnero Associates
Marpillero Pollak Architects
Matthew Mazzotta
modus studio
Office of: Office
Olson Kundig
Pei Cobb Freed/Moody Nolan/Hood Design Studio Peoples Architecture Office and Plugin House RDG Planning & Design
Richard Kennedy Architects
Ross Barney Architects Smith Gee Studio
SO – IL
Somewhere Studio Studio Cadena
Studio Gang
Studio James Carpenter / JCDA Inc. and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc. The Miller Hull Partnership
VJAA
Weiss/Manfredi
WXY Studio
Young + Wales Architects
“I was most impressed by the range and diversity of the different interpretations of PORCH and its role as a public place of gathering, community, and civic purpose,” said Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, Founding Partner and Design Director, Marlon Blackwell Architects, and E. Fay Jones Distinguished Professor at the University of Arkansas. “The submissions ranged in scale from two people to 200 people and everything in between. As a jury, we sought to reflect this range in the quality and different scales of work through the selections we made from around the country.”
Photograph by Timothy Hursley.
Organized by the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas, in partnership with DesignConnects and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity focuses on the representation of the U.S. through the contemporary manifestation of the porch in American architecture. As a quintessentially constructed place, the porch is at once social and environmental, tectonic and performative, hospitable and intimate, generous and democratic. The U.S. Pavilion’s theme highlights an enduring American architectural typology that persists across scales, geographies, communities, construction methods, and histories.
To complement the 52 finalists announced, the Organizers will also showcase a “Beyond the PORCH” collection featuring ideas, concepts, and expressions of the porch that have influenced cultural and societal norms, shaped philosophical thinking, or sparked architectural movements. This includes iconic examples such as Arcosanti, entry ports, and urban archetypes like stoops, highlighting the porch’s enduring role as both a physical and symbolic space in the built environment.
PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity will debut publicly on May 10, 2025, at the opening of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition.
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