Beyti Beytak. My Home is Your Home. La mia casa è la tua casa

Marking the first official participation of Qatar in the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Beyti Beytak. My Home is Your Home. La mia casa è la tua casa examines how modern and contemporary architecture responds to the needs of communities while reimagining a sense of belonging.

The exhibition features an installation in the Giardini della Biennale and a presentation at the ACP-Palazzo Franchetti.

In the Giardini, on the site of the future Qatar Pavilion, Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari’s Community Centre (2024) showcases Lari’s humanitarian, social, cultural, and architectural development model. The temporary installation, a bamboo structure, uses techniques that were deployed by the architect as part of relief efforts prompted by the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, an organisation she co-founded in 1980. The foundation continues to establish shelters and villages for those suffering from a devastating earthquake and repeated flooding in Pakistan. The design of the Community Centre—including a perimeter veranda and dome structure topped with a waterproof palm frond roof—highlights the adaptability of bamboo, used to construct the entire centre through varied structural assemblies.

Events inside the Community Centre throughout the duration of the Biennale Architettura 2025 focus on traditional Qatari forms of welcome, including the serving of coffee and dates. Yasmeen Lari’sCommunity Centre (2024) was commissioned by the future Art Mill Museum and was recently installed at the National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ) as part of the landmark exhibition MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today.

Pioneering Modern Architects’ Work on Show

At ACP-Palazzo Franchetti, the exhibition presents the work of more than 30 modern architects, including several who have not previously shown in Venice. Examining three generations of architects that have worked in the MENASA region, the exhibition features drawings, photographs, models, and important archival documentation. Through these materials, Beyti Beytak explores interconnected themes of community and belonging, organised into sections dedicated to the reinvention of the oasis, city housing, community centres, mosques, museums, and gardens. A section is also devoted to the architecture and urbanism of Doha, which includes several doors from the old city that have been restored with the support of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

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.

Participating Architects

AAU ANASTAS (France, Palestine), Ateliers Jean Nouvel (France), Leopold Banchini Architects (Switzerland), Geoffrey Bawa (Sri Lanka), Rifat Chadirji (Iraq), Aziza Chaouni Projects (Morocco), Charles Correa (India), DAAZ Studio (Iran), Minnette de Silva (Sri Lanka), Sumaya Dabbagh (Saudi Arabia), Nayyar Ali Dada (Pakistan), Michel Desvigne (France), Diller Scofidio + Renfro (USA), Michel Écochard (France), Abdel-Wahed El-Wakil (Egypt), Hassan Fathy (Egypt), Nabil Haque (Bangladesh), Rizvi Hassan and Khwaja Fatmi (Bangladesh), Róisín Heneghan and Shih-Fu Peng (Ireland; Germany), Ibrahim Jaidah (Qatar), Sumedha Kelegama, Irushi Tennekoon, Sumudu Athukorala (Sri Lanka), Yasmeen Lari/Heritage Foundation of Pakistan (Pakistan), Salima Naji (Morocco), New South (Meriem Chabani) & sOne (France), Office for Metropolitan Architecture (Netherlands), Sameep Padora [sP+A] (India), André Ravéreau (France), Raj Rewal (India), Noura Al Sayeh (Bahrain), Abeer Seikaly (Jordan), Ahmed Hossam Saafan (Egypt), Balkrishna Doshi, Vastu-Shilpa Foundation (India), Marina Tabassum (Bangladesh), Jean-François Zevaco (Morocco) and Ola Saad Znad (Iraq).