Books help to brace the lightweight frame of La Libreria, a demountable library created by US studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
The 24-metre-long pavilion has a lightweight structure designed for transportability and “to support literacy and a love of reading” in various locations.
According to Diller Scofidio + Renfro, it draws on research into tensile structures in architecture, including work by French engineer Robert Le Ricolais.
La Liberia is unanchored to the ground and stabilised by a mix of ballasts and books, encased in wooden shelving that runs the length of the library.
It has a 24-metre-long span wrapped in Structural Transparent Fluorinated Envelope (STFE) – a high-performance architectural textile. It bears a resemblance to the material used to envelop The Shed, the studio’s cultural centre in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards.
STFE was selected for its transparency but also for being lightweight, enabling it to be demounted and fit in a container for transportation.
Although the structure was designed so that it could be dismantled and rebuilt, no future locations have been announced.
La Liberia is in the Giardini della Biennale, where the James Sterling-designed bookshop is also located.
It sits alongside numerous national pavilions that are exhibiting during this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale. Among them are the Danish Pavilion, which has been turned into a construction site by Søren Pihlmann, and the Finnish Pavilion, which tells the “untold story” of an Alvar Aalto-designed building.
Elsewhere at the event, Diller Scofidio + Renfro has collaborated with London’s Victoria and Albert museum on an exhibition on the architecture of storage.
This year’s Venice Architecture Biennale has been curated by Italian architect Carlo Ratti, who recently said that “Dezeen killed the traditional form of the biennale”.
The photography is by Iwan Baan.
The Venice Architecture Biennale takes place from 10 May and 23 November 2025. See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest information you need to know to attend the event, as well as a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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