Overview
Generative AI does not create from nothing. It generates new expressions drawn from curated collections of precedents, thus upholding the continuity and influence of often unspoken traditions and canons.
This 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale two-day Conference “Generative AI and the Future of Learning and Making” will interrogate the implications of AI-driven imitation for the future of learning and creation. Across two days (14 and 15 November 2025, Ca’ Giustinian), the conference will bring together architects, neuroscientists, roboticists, philosophers, media artists, historians, and theorists to rethink intelligence beyond imitation—toward forms of learning grounded in matter, space, and life itself. It unfolds through three interconnected areas of investigation: the current state of generative design, the politics of data and its epistemic consequences, and the emergence of new, embodied forms of intelligence. Ultimately, it explores how artificial intelligence is transforming the ways we learn, design, and make. Beyond Imitation is conceived as a research platform extending from the conference.
The initiative is a collaboration between The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), and the Media x Design Lab, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), under the direction of Mario Carpo, Lidia Gasperoni, and Jeffrey Huang.
No pre-registration required.
Schedule
Day 1 (14 November 2025)
15:00 Opening Remarks – Jeffrey Huang (EPFL) and Mario Carpo & Lidia Gasperoni (UCL)
15:15 Panel 1 – Generative AI in Architecture: State of the Art
Curated by: Mario Carpo (The Bartlett, UCL) and Jeffrey Huang (EPFL)
Panelists: Matias del Campo (TU Wien / NYIT), Immanuel Koh (Singapore University of Technology and Design), Kyle Steinfeld (UC Berkeley), Mark Wilson-Jones (University of Cambridge)
18:00 Keynote – Refik Anadol, AI artist, Los Angeles
Day 2 (15 November 2025)
10:00 Panel 2 – Politics of Datasets: Invisible Influences and Alternative Epistemologies
Curated by: Lidia Gasperoni (The Bartlett, UCL)
Panelists: Noam Elcott (Columbia University), Catherine Griffiths (Columbia GSAPP), Orit Halpern (TU Dresden), Matteo Pasquinelli (Università IUAV di Venezia)
15:00 Panel 3 – Forms of Intelligence: Learning and Making from Neuroscience to Robotics
Curated by: Jeffrey Huang (EPFL) with Mario Carpo (UCL/Italian Academy)
Panelists: Daniela Rus (MIT CSAIL), Olaf Blanke (EPFL Brain Mind Institute), Miriam Kyselo (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Philip Yuan (Tongji University / ArchiUnion), Fabio Gramazio (ETH Zurich)
18:00 – Closing Roundtable Discussion
Moderators: Allison Arieff (MIT Technology Review) and Chairs
19:00 – Concluding remarks and farewell
link