Fourteen years ago, the introductory words of the first Biennale programme brochure were the following: “Build a permanent observation capacity and a regular rendez-vous to check on the “state of health” of public spaces and their systems, which are the support structure of any city deserving such a name. This is the constituent idea of the Biennale.”
What followed was a bird’s eye overview of the state of health of public space. The overview was not encouraging. Urban sprawl, chaotic urbanization, elimination and privatization of relational spaces, lack of maintenance, crisis of public urban transport and unsustainable private mobility were all threats to the enjoyment of the citizenship rights of the more vulnerable groups such as women, children, the aging, migrants.
Four years later, those categories were placed at the centre of Target 11.7 on Green and Public Spaces, an integral part of Agenda 2030 adopted by all of the UN member states. And in the second Biennale, threats and opportunities were enumerated in the Biennale Charter of Public Space. Among the latter, that very introduction of fourteen years ago mentioned “the many local administrations committed to re-conquering the social dimension of planning, and those citizens determined more than ever to defend or create a park, a proximity service, a space for public use, to conserve over time those public spaces considered common goods to preserve the quality of life of future generations.”
The 2025 Biennale programme includes a commitment to investigate “the health status of public space” mentioned in that first edition through a “Report on Public Space” project which commenced a year ago. This is only one of the welcome signs of continuity shown by this Biennale, which affirms with its theme “Insieme/Together/Juntos” its international dimension and signals new issues – such as an international climate hostile to cooperation, civic culture and dialogue among peoples, global symbol of an individual retrenchment that is the very antithesis of the spirit that animates the sharing of urban public space.
This spirit is well present in this year’s Biennale. With its six sessions, each devoted to a specific declension of the “Insieme” theme, its thirty-two special sessions and its 370 speakers, the Biennale opens itself to a variety of approaches ranging from inter- and intra-disciplinary modes to the most varied territorial contexts. Among the first, in addition to the six thematic sessions (“Together” in social inclusion, in the ecological transition, in the defense of the public city and common goods, in the professional disciplines, in the challenge of artificial, intelligence), the Biennale includes gender perspectives and the public space of women, the health functions, livability and adaptability of public spaces, community-led innovation, designing for togetherness, inclusiveness, the actuality of great urban experiences like Renato Nicolini’s Rome season and the thread of egalitarianism running through historic planning breakthroughs, accessibility and inclusion, sports and public space, children and “just space”, spaces that heal, temporary use, urban parks as collaborative and participatory conception and implementation outcomes, active participation, and the city as a teaching subject for a rebirth of planning and urbanism.
The territories covered by BiSP 2025 also represent a vast range of experiences: a Jane’s Walk through nearby urban spaces around the Biennale; Rome’s recent public-space realizations (the 2025 Jubilee piazzas, the still memorable Centopiazze vision of the recent past, the resurgent outskirts, the new parks, the relationship between Rome and its rivers), the Rome region (public-space projects documented by the Lazio chapter of the national Institute of Urbanism), the Adriatic riviera and its new waterfront templates, schools and public space in the Venice hinterland, public space and Italy’s marginalized territories, new global networks of scholars and practitioners of public-space activism, and initiatives inspired by the Biennale in other regions of the world, such as the African continent.
New themes are accompanied by new events, such as the “Stanza dei Libri” devoted to the presentation of nationally and internationally published books on cities and public space, and initiatives for the near future, including the launching of a competition on the “vertical components” of public space.
Finally, a word of special thanks is due to those without whose commitment the Biennale would not have been possible. The Architecture Department of Rome’s Third University (Roma Tre) offered its spaces as it has in the past, but also its counseling and support to the construction of the 2025 programme. The Biennale dello Spazio Pubblico Association has offered its resources, in addition to months of volunteer work. And both INU and INU Lazio added to their cultural and professional support a generous and much needed financial assistance.
Access to all Biennale events is completely free and does not require registration.