Following its discussion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, Ireland’s national structure embarks on a nationwide trip, bringing its exploration of architecture, involvement and collective listening to audiences across the country.
Ireland’s contribution to the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale is returning home. Following its discussion in Venice, Assembly by Cotter & Naessens Architects will visit a series of venues and festivals across Ireland throughout 2026, welcoming brand-new audiences to experience the setup and engage with the ideas that formed it.
Part setup, part soundscape and part civic proposal, Assembly checks out architecture as a framework for event, listening and collective reflection. Influenced by Ireland’s People’ Assembly, the project considers how physical space can support discussion, involvement and democratic exchange at a time when much public discourse is significantly fragmented and moderated through digital platforms.
Developed by Cork-based practice Cotter & Naessens Architects, the pavilion reflects on assembly as both a procedure of making and a condition of being together. Handcrafted from Irish beech and integrating a carpet woven by Ceadogán Rugmakers, the installation integrates eco-friendly products, craft and collective understanding. Embedded throughout the structure, a series of soundboxes play a spatialised structure created by Michelle Delea and David Stalling, weaving together music, poetry, interviews and recordings from the pavilion’s own fabrication to develop an immersive architectural environment.
The national trip starts at Cork Midsummer Celebration before travelling to Galway International Arts Festival later on in the summertime. Further occasions include screenings and discussions at Dunamaise Arts Centre in Portlaoise and Architecture at the Edge in Galway. Together with the setup, visitors will have the ability to view a brand-new documentary by Michelle Delea that traces the style, making and setup of the pavilion through film and sound.
By taking the project beyond Venice and into towns and cities across Ireland, the trip extends the pavilion’s main proposition: that architecture can provide not only areas for occupation, however likewise areas for discussion, reflection and collective creativity. As Assembly moves from place to venue, it continues to ask how the built environment may assist foster more open and inclusive kinds of public exchange.