“Architecture is Diplomacy”: Qatar Pavilion at Venice Biennale

Qatar presented Beyti Beytak. My Home is Your Home. La mia casa è la tua casa, a two-part exhibition presented at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Beyti Beytak explores how forms of hospitality are embodied in the architecture and urban landscapes of the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (MENASA). The exhibition examines how modern and contemporary architecture responds to the needs of communities while reimagining a sense of belonging.

Beyti Beytak, produced by Qatar Museums and organized by the future Art Mill Museum, marks Qatar’s first official participation in the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The project features an installation at the Giardini della Biennale and a comprehensive exhibition at the ACP–Palazzo Franchetti, presented with the support of ACP Art Capital Partners. Open to the public through November 23, 2025, Beyti Beytak celebrates architecture from the MENASA region through the lens of hospitality, community, and belonging.

Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Commissioner of the Qatar Pavilion and Chairperson of Qatar Museums said, “The exhibition Beyti Beytak demonstrates the commitment of Qatar Museums to amplify the voices of leading modern and contemporary creatives from the Arab world and neighbouring regions. This exhibition not only highlights the profound contributions of MENASA architects to global architecture but also reflects our shared values of hospitality, community, and belonging. As we continue to shape a cultural landscape of dialogue and exchange, this exhibition serves as a testament to Qatar’s role in advancing cultural diplomacy and fostering a deeper understanding of our diverse architectural heritage.”

At the Giardini, on the future site of the Qatar Pavilion, Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari’s Community Centre (2024) showcases her humanitarian model for social, cultural, and architectural development. Constructed from bamboo, the temporary structure draws from techniques developed by Lari through the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, which she co-founded in 1980.

The design—featuring a veranda, domed structure, and palm frond waterproof roof—demonstrates bamboo’s versatility and reflects its role in shelter relief efforts responding to earthquakes and floods. During the Biennale, the Community Centre will host events celebrating traditional Qatari forms of welcome.

Meanwhile, at the ACP–Palazzo Franchetti, Beyti Beytak brings together the work of more than 30 architects—some of whom are being exhibited in Venice for the first time. The exhibition spans three generations of architectural practice from across the MENASA region.

Through drawings, photographs, models, and archival materials, the exhibition examines themes of community and belonging, organized into sections such as the reinvention of the oasis, city housing, community centres, mosques, museums, gardens, and a special focus on the architecture and urbanism of Doha, including restored doors from the old city, supported by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

Prominent figures from the modern era, including Raj Rewal (India), Nayyar Ali Dada (Pakistan), Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil (Egypt), and Minnette de Silva (Sri Lanka), are featured alongside contemporary architects and studios such as Marina Tabassum and Nabil Haque (Bangladesh), Sameep Padora [sP+A] and Balkrishna Doshi, Vastu-Shilpa Foundation (India), DAAZ Studio (Iran), Abeer Seikaly (Jordan), Sumaya Dabbagh (Saudi Arabia), Diller Scofidio + Renfro (USA), and Meriem Chabani with New South (France), among others. The exhibition also reflects on the enduring legacy of Hassan Fathy, the Egyptian architect whose work championed socially engaged and vernacular architectural practice.

Beyti Beytak is curated by Aurélien Lemonier, Art Mill Museum Curator of Architecture, Design, and Gardens, and Sean Anderson, Associate Professor at Cornell University, assisted by Virgile Alexandre. The exhibition design has been conceived by Cookies, a Paris- and Rotterdam-based architecture studio formed by Federico Martelli, Clément Périssé and Alice Grégoire.

Aurélien Lemonier said, “Conceived as a multidisciplinary institution devoted to art in all forms since 1850, the future Art Mill Museum will include architecture, design, and landscape architecture as core elements of its collections and programmes. Beyti Beytak is a testament to the richness of the MENASA region’s architectural heritage and highlights the diversity and creativity of designers and architects from the Arab world and the Global South.”

Sean Anderson said, “Community and belonging are expressions that inform hospitality throughout the world today. As we witness the planet’s transformations, mirrored by technology’s drive toward a more collective yet divided future, Beyti Beytak responds to how architects and designers have imagined how we gather, where we reflect, and what we feel with and for each other.”

The exhibition design explores the spatial possibilities of mesh, a ubiquitous architectural element found in many cultures around the world. Referred to as “mashrabiya” in the Arab world, but also known as “claustra,” “cobogo,” “roshan,” “şanşol,” “jali,” “aggasi,” “takrima,” and “mushabek” in other regions, it is incorporated into the exhibition architecture as a display device, creating transparencies, partitions, and relationships between the content and themes in the show.

Yasmeen Lari’s Community Centre (2024) was commissioned by the future Art Mill Museum and was recently installed at the National Museum of Qatar as part of the landmark exhibition MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today.

The Beyti Beytak scientific committee is composed of Catherine Grenier, Ibrahim Jaidah, Yasmeen Lari, Hafid Rakem, and Raj Rewal.

“Architecture Becomes Diplomacy”

During the pre-opening events for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia, Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, hosted a series of historic ceremonies, discussions and celebrations on 8 May, marking Qatar’s heightened presence on this pre-eminent stage of the international art world.

In Venice’s Giardini, the heart of La Biennale di Venezia, H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa welcomed Mayor of Venice Luigi Brugnaro, President of La Biennale di Venezia Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, and Qatar’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Italy H.E. Khalid bin Youssef Khalifa Abdullah Al Sada to the site of the future Qatar Pavilion. When completed, the Qatar Pavilion will be only the third national Pavilion added to the prestigious Giardini in more than 50 years.

“Qatar will join the great chorus of nations in the Giardini, where architecture becomes diplomacy, and beauty speaks peace,” H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa said before the invited audience of dignitaries, distinguished guests and media. “Our Pavilion, crafted by the brilliant Lina Ghotmeh, will embody hospitality, resilience and our collective dreams.

The Qatar Pavilion will be a home for exchange, for wonder, for the world — a place to engage in multiple dialogues that foster peace and inspire understanding. It will also be the place where we showcase the art, architecture and creativity of Qatar and our entire region of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.” Her Excellency then opened the temporary installation that Qatar is presenting on the site: Community Centre, designed by architect Yasmeen Lari/Heritage Foundation of Pakistan.

Community Centre is part of the exhibition, Beyti Beytak. My Home is Your Home. La mia casa è la tua casa, Qatar’s official presentation in the 19th International Architecture Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia. The exhibition will continue at ACP-Palazzo Franchetti, where H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa later welcomed guests to two discussions organised under the auspices of Qatar Creates and its Evolution Nation initiative, celebrating fifty years of Qatar’s cultural journey.

Yasmeen Lari, designer of Community Centre, conversed with renowned Indian architect Raj Rewal in a discussion moderated by Sean Anderson, Associate Professor at Cornell University and co-curator of Beyti Beytak.

Speaking about the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, Yasmeen Lari said, “The exhibition’s theme of hospitality is about taking care of each other. So it is important to use materials that are not threatening to people and the planet and that have a certain warmth, like the bamboo of Community Centre. The decision by Her Excellency and the curators to bring Community Centre to Venice sends a very powerful message: wealth is not necessarily the criterion. It’s how you treat the planet and how you treat the people.”

For the second part of the conversations, H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa engaged in a discussion about the future Qatar Pavilion with Lina Ghotmeh, founder and principal of the Paris-based studio Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture, moderated by noted architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff.

H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa said, “This is a national pavilion that will reflect what Qatar does in the world, which is to support Arab voices across all pursuits—social, economic, and of course creative—and so it is important to have an Arab architect. Our goal is to elevate Arab creatives as well as others from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.”

Lina Ghotmeh said, “Qatar is a place where the world comes to discuss serious matters while the nation continues to foster cultural diplomacy through art and creativity. This is the vocation of the permanent Qatar Pavilion as well—to be a place where visitors can discover art as a way of bringing people together.

“The question of hospitality is at the center of the design of the Qatar Pavilion. It is about how a place can embrace people and allow these encounters, especially at this location, which is really at the heart at the Giardini. Opening up this new platform for Arab voices and presenting us in our diversity brings a new perspective to the Giardini.”