The University of Cincinnati is currently basking in the Venetian limelight, and for a darn good reason: the architecture students and faculty have managed to snag international attention at the 2025 Venice Biennale – not a small feat in an event swarming with brainy design buffs and eye-popping sustainable concepts. Their installation, cheekily named "INOSCULAE," has become a darling of sorts, earning a coveted spot in Building Design journalist Mary Richardson's feature "27 Interesting Innovations and Prototypes from the Venice Biennale," according to UC News.
For those not in the loop, think of the Venice Biennale as the Olympics for the design-minded, with less sprinting and more pondering over structures; the roundup, in which UC's work was featured, is a smorgasbord of groundbreaking green design concepts – we're talking underwater-grown buildings and even bricks made of, yeah, you heard right, elephant poop. The shout-out to UC is not just pat-on-the-back material, it's a testament to their big brain energy in the experimental design department and a high-five to their research-driven design ethos. “INOSCULAE," just FYI, is this wild 3-D printed mash-up created with wood fiber and plant binders, a photo of which you can apparently eyeball thanks to this Klemmt fella.
Speaking of Christoph Klemmt, this associate professor is the brains behind the operation at UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, steering these brainy cats towards the design deep end where nature, computation, and architecture have a little dance. "INOSCULAE" is practically a sneak peek at a fantastical future where buildings might do some organic evolving on their own, much like your garden variety living organisms – a concept that's both creepy and cool.
The installation, by the wayside, nestled itself quite comfortably at the European Cultural Centre’s exposition aptly dubbed "Time Space Existence" and no, that’s not your cue to dust off your existentialist hat, but rather, it's a nod to DAAP's commitment to playing nice internationally and pushing the envelope in sustainable design innovation, a clever bunch there, pushing the boundaries of what buildings can be by looking outside the blueprints and more into biology books, if you will.
