Brazil scoops 2023 Golden Lion award for national participation at the Venice Architecture Biennale
The Brazil Pavilion won the prestigious 2023 Golden Lion award for best national participation, as announced at the Venice Architecture Biennale in Italy this weekend - along with more honours for individual and country-led installations

The Brazilian Pavilion has been announced as the 2023 Golden Lion winner for national participation at the Venice Architecture Biennale, which launched to the public this weekend. The South American country's win came alongside several more honours revealed for more national contributions as well as individual installations in curator Lesley Lokko's main show, and of course the Golder Lion for Lifetime Achievement 2023 which went to Nigerian artist, designer and architect Demas Nwoko.
The co-curators of Brazil's pavilion, Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares
2023 Golden Lion: Brazilian Pavilion
Co-curators of the Brazilian Pavilion Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares look at notions of decolonisation, national identity, diaspora, indigenous knowledge systems, as well as around Brasília and modernism, while connecting to Lokko's main theme through the vector of the African diaspora. Titled 'Terra', the exhibit draws on the past to compose 'possible futures, focusing on the role of land in shaping our understanding of heritage and identity.'
The pavilion features projects born of Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian knowledge about land and territory, as well as bespoke commissions such as an audio-visual piece by Brazilian filmmaker Juliana Vicente, archival photographs complied by historian Ana Flávia Magalhães Pinto, the ethno-historical map of Brazil by Curt Nimuendajú, and the Brasília Quilombola map.
The biennale's international jury panel this year was composed of Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli (president, Italy); Nora Akawi (Palestine); Thelma Golden (US); Tau Tavengwa (Zimbabwe); and Izabela Wieczorek (Poland). More awards included a special mention for the British Pavilion, titled 'Dancing Before The Moon'; the Golden Lion for the best participant in the 18th Exhibition 'The Laboratory of the Future', which went to DAAR's Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal; the Silver Lion for a promising young participant in the 18th Exhibition 'The Laboratory of the Future' to Olalekan Jeyifous; and three further special mentions to Twenty Nine Studio / Sammy Baloji, Wolff Architects, and Thandi Loewenson.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Welcome to io: OpenAI acquires Jony Ive’s secret startup to shape the form of future AI
Jony Ive’s LoveFrom has spent two years assembling io, a crack team of specialists to visualise the physical form of Artificial Intelligence. Newly acquired by Sam Altman at ChatGPT, this tech supergroup hopes to re-shape the landscape of Silicon Valley and our relationship with tech
-
Chelsea Flower Show unfurled: a year of pause, thought and promise
This week’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show – now in its 112th year – has begun to reveal its defining spirit. This year is one of tentative readjustment: a reassuring exploration of the ‘future garden’, and the ways in which landscape design might tackle climate and conservation challenges
-
Milan exhibition celebrates 20 years of Armani Privé: ‘Haute couture is fashion when it becomes art’
Hosted at the Tadao Ando-designed Armani/Silos, ‘Giorgio Armani Privé 2005-2025, Twenty Years of Haute Couture’ displays an expansive collection of the Italian designer’s showstopping haute couture creations
-
A Brazil office makes the most of its tropical location
We tour of a new Brazil office engulfed in greenery – welcome to Gabriel Faria Lima Corporate by Perkins & Will
-
Oscar Niemeyer: a guide to the Brazilian modernist, from big hits to lesser-known gems
Architecture master Oscar Niemeyer defined 20th-century architecture and is synonymous with Brazilian modernism; our ultimate guide explores his work, from lesser-known schemes to his big hits; and we revisit a check-in with the man himself
-
Want to be a Venice pavilion commissioner? Bring ideas – and your Rolodex
The impressive showings of the USA's Venice pavilion in the Giardini belie the ambitious fundraising efforts that underpin them. Past and present curators tell us how it works
-
Inspired by 1970s Brazilian brutalism, Arches House is rich in colour and expression
Akitito Arquitetura blends Brazilian brutalism with fresh colours, bringing warmth and energy into a renovated family home in São Paulo
-
A mesmerising edition of The Dalmore Luminary Series is unveiled in Venice
The Dalmore Luminary Series sculpture No.3 by Ben Dobbin of Foster + Partners, co-curated by V&A Dundee, launches in Venice during the 2025 Architecture Biennale
-
A love letter to the panache and beauty of diagrams: OMA/AMO at the Prada Foundation in Venice
‘Diagrams’, an exhibition by AMO/OMA, celebrates the powerful visual communication of data as a valuable tool of investigation; we toured the newly opened show in Venice’s Prada Foundation
-
How was Carlo Ratti’s ‘Intelligens’? Wallpaper* editors discuss the 19th Venice Biennale
Having visited ‘Intelligens’, the 19th Venice Biennale's main show by curator Carlo Ratti, the Wallpaper* editors discuss what they saw at the world's biggest global architecture festival
-
The 2025 British Pavilion in Venice offered up a Geology of Britannic Repair
The 2025 British Pavilion in Venice is curated by an Anglo-Kenyan team of architects and designers; titled 'GBR: Geology of Britannic Repair', it explores the landscape of colonialism, its past, present and futures