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Sea Oasis – Survival Architecture, 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia curated by Carlo Ratti, Corderie dell’Arsenale; SEA BEYOND Ocean Literacy Centre, Isola di San Servolo; About: – Data Curator of the new Hearst architecture magazine

Dotdotdot, a multidisciplinary design studio specializing in interactive narrative environments and the translation of complex technologies into practical tools for real-world applications, presents three projects in Venice.

Each project, in its own way, illustrates the studio’s research approach and its vision for how data can shape a more conscious, planet-centered design practice.

• The research project and installation Sea Oasis – Survival Architecture, part of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Carlo Ratti, on display at the Corderie dell’Arsenale (10 May – 23 November 2025);
• The multimedia installations in the SEA BEYOND Ocean Literacy Centre, on the Island of San Servolo, co-designed by CRA – Carlo Ratti Associati with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and created with the support of the Prada Group, inaugurated on 4 April;
• The activity of Data Curator for About:, a new architecture magazine directed by Alessandro Valenti for Hearst, presented in Venice on May 7.

If properly curated – through collaboration with researchers and scientists – and used to develop predictive Artificial Intelligence models, data are a fundamental source for designing with a planet- and human-centered perspective. The ideal point of arrival to which the studio’s research tends is a broad and widespread application of Regenerative Design, an approach that integrates the assessment of environmental impact from the initial stages of design.

Designing with a regenerative perspective means imagining the final destination of each material and shape from the beginning, taking into account the needs of ecosystems – to be defined scientifically in collaboration with experts – biologists, entomologists, agronomists and other biodiversity scholars. These collaborations aim at collecting the necessary data to make informed decisions and evaluate the effect of purposefully designed actions over time.

In this context, Artificial Intelligence becomes a strategic tool: its computational power enables the development of future scenarios as well as the selection of effective intervention strategies, and supports scientific validation through continuous monitoring. Across each of the projects presented in Venice, Dotdotdot’s vision emerges: a responsible, interdisciplinary design approach driven by the conscious use of technology, a practice capable of anticipating challenges and guiding sustainable decisions through predictive models and aspiring to collaborative, desireble futures.

Sea Oasis – Survival Architecture, a project participating in the Architecture Biennale 2025

Data and GenAI as predictive tools for an informed implementation of regenerative design strategies

A project participating in the Architecture Biennale 2025 curated by Carlo Ratti, exhibited at the Corderie dell’Arsenale, Sea Oasis – Survival Architecture represents a concrete expression of the integration between applied Artificial Intelligence and new circular design approaches, namely Regenerative Design.

Sea Oasis – Survival Architecture was born from the encounter between Dotdotdot and the studies of Olivia Cassetti, a researcher at the University of Padua involved in the analysis of the results of marine restoration operations in the Venice Lagoon aimed at maintaining and reviving biodiversity.

The Mediterranean Sea is a precious basin of biodiversity, where ecosystem engineers—small creatures like oysters—build underwater architectures that support, regenerate, and aggregate life. These structures promote marine biological diversity, which is essential not only for ocean health but also for life on land. This delicate balance depends on changes over time across a range of parameters: environmental (such as temperature, pH, and salinity), biological (shaped by interactions between organisms of the same or different species—such as predation, reproduction, and competition), and anthropogenic (including fishing, and chemical, light, and sound pollution).

Sea Oasis – Survival Architecture aims to explore how, through the analysis of data relating to these parameters and their temporal evolution, generative artificial intelligence can support scientists in designing effective restoration interventions, helping them to understand, for example, where to act to enhance the positive presence of ecosystem engineers. The more accurate the prediction of the outcomes of each action, the more it will contribute to the protection of marine biodiversity.

The project at the Corderie dell’Arsenale presents visitors with a series of artificial elements printed in 3D, designed algorithmically starting from organic forms inspired by those naturally produced by bio-engineers: following the logic of Regenerative Design these objects will be immersed in the Venice lagoon at the end of the Biennale. The exact location of the immersion will be defined by the AI ​​following the reasoning carried out on the basis of the data provided. The impact of the structures on the proliferation of marine life, once immersed in the Lagoon, will be monitored by the researcher from the University of Padua Olivia Cassetti as part of her doctoral thesis.

At the Architecture Biennale 2025, visitors will be able to explore a dynamic video that shows in real time the decision-making process of the AI ​​and the implementation strategy in the Lagoon that is formed. An immersive soundscape accompanies the experience, merging underwater biophonies with digital harmonies, reinforcing the speculative visualizations of the species and the emotional connection with the sea.

Thanks to its predictive models, generative artificial intelligence becomes an essential tool for decision-making, allowing scientists to simulate, visualize and evaluate complex scenarios. It supports the strategic planning of reef restoration interventions, taking into account a wide range of natural and anthropogenic variables: variations in temperature, salinity and acidification, marine currents, diseases, competition between species, fishing, noise and light pollution.

Data visualization at SEA BEYOND Ocean Literacy Centre, San Servolo

Data as a tool to increase public awareness of the key role of the Ocean in protecting biodiversity on land too.

Dotdotdot’s contribution to the SEA BEYOND Ocean Literacy Centre, promoted by UNESCO and Prada on the Island of San Servolo (Venice) and hosted in a space designed by Carlo Ratti, represents the most direct and high-impact application of the studio’s approach to data representation. In this context, data visualization is used as a tool to create immersive and communicative experiences, capable of generating informed awareness on crucial issues of the present – ​​in this case, the importance and dynamism of the Ocean.

The installation is divided into three main environments, organized as an immersive path that guides the visitor from the macro to the micro: the first room, with an observation point ideally located 10 million meters from the Earth, offers a planetary vision of the oceans; second space focuses on the local dimension of the Venice Lagoon seen from 1,000 meters above sea level; the third one, at ground level (0 meters) provides a focus shifts to individual action, through interactive games that promote understanding and personal activation.

In the first two rooms, Dotdotdot has designed two immersive maps projected onto large tables covered by a thin layer of water and whose shapes recall the Spilhaus Map – a representation of the world that puts the Ocean at the center rather than the mainland – and the Venice Lagoon.

To tell the story of the dynamism of the Ocean, Dotdotdot has collaborated with UNESCO marine biologists, selecting data relating to currents, temperatures, salinity, maritime routes and animal migrations, including in their historical evolution. The data visualizations highlight global interconnections and the bond between human beings and the Ocean, underlining how a single mass of water connects the entire planet.

The visualizations are characterized by a continuous flow and are projected onto water surfaces that cover the tables, carved according to the shapes of the two maps.

To complete the experience, Dotdotdot created a quadraphonic soundscape, inspired by musical minimalism and the works of Steve Reich, Terry Riley and in particular Philip Glass, with references to the soundtrack of the experimental film Koyaanisqatsi. The soundscape also reflects the theme of dynamism, through progressive stratifications of melodic and rhythmic ostinatos that overlap following the narrative structure of the video. Each informative layer of the map is accompanied by a corresponding sound layer, contributing to the construction of a perceptive climax.

Dotdotdot Data Curator for About:, the new architecture magazine by Hearst

Data as a tool to broaden the awareness of those who design (and to design with a Planet-centered perspective)

It is for their distinctive approach to data – bridging scientific and social research with design practice – that Alessandro Valenti, director of the new architecture magazine About:, published by Hearst and launching in Venice on May 7, chose Dotdotdot as the magazine’s Data Curator.

Conceived as a dialogue with architects around the world and published twice a year, About: is an editorial platform – both in print and digital formats – that seeks to merge information with a conscious, future-oriented design vision.

In this context, Dotdotdot uses data not only to enrich the narrative, but to offer alternative interpretations, promoting projects guided by metrics that go beyond traditional economic or functional parameters, including the well-being of the environment, animal and plant species and human beings.

From this perspective, a new paradigm for the design of living and urban spaces is born, which requires the contribution of heterogeneous skills – as already experimented by Dotdotdot with Sea Oasis – now applied to architecture, planning and landscape.

It is a method based on the collaboration between those who produce and process data in the academic field, clients and designers. In this process, Dotdotdot’s know-how plays a crucial role, consistent with its experience in technology transfer.

An approach that opens up to new forms, materials and design strategies, oriented towards disassemblability and Regenerative Design, applied in an architectural key.