The open call has ended. We thank everyone who applied for their interest. The results will be shared with applicants as soon as possible, following the jury’s evaluations.

Soil is a living ecosystem, a form of natural intelligence, and an archive carrying traces of the past. Selected for the Türkiye Pavilion at the International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, Grounded will include projects that aim to learn from the soil and draw inspiration from its sensory and cyclical nature. This call invites architecture students and architects to submit projects that rethink architecture’s relationship with soil, open discussions about this connection in the context of Türkiye, and explore the role of soil in the production of physical and social spaces of the future.

The submitted projects are expected to explore the traditional knowledge embedded in soil, adopting innovative and critical approaches that neither marginalise soil nor separate it from life, but instead consider it as an integral element. Applicants may develop new projects specifically for this exhibition or submit projects previously produced or planned to be produced in architecture studio courses at universities. Selected projects will be featured in the Grounded exhibition of the Türkiye Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2025. The presentation of the projects in the exhibition will be determined by the curators in accordance with the scope of each project.

Architecture department students from universities, recent graduates,and architects can apply.

❶ Online application form

❷ Project credentials; including the participant’s full name, university, studio coordinator, and year of production.

❸ Two presentation boards (dimensions: 29.5 cm height x 35 cm, 300 dpi resolution) that convey the conceptual and visual details of the projects. All visuals used in the boards should comply with this resolution, and technical drawings, if included, must be prepared as vector graphics.

❹ A descriptive text explaining the project with a maximum length of 1,200 characters (excluding spaces), in PDF format. All documents must be prepared in English and in PDF format. The application form will remain open until Monday, 3 March 2025, at 17.00 (Istanbul time, GMT+3).

For detailed information about the open call, please contact: yerebasan@iksv.org

Submissions to the open call will be evaluated by a jury including the exhibition curators Ceren Erdem and Bilge Kalfa; Yelda Gin, architect, researcher and lecturer at London South Bank University; Özgül Öztürk, founder of A Architecture with a focus on circular design; and Levent Özruh, director of London-based architectural design studio OZRUH and a UK Design Council expert.