In the garden at the end of the Arsenal exhibition area in Venice, an elegantly shaped oiled paper umbrella gently blankets the lawn, evoking imagery that seems to step right out of ancient Chinese poetry. This outdoor installation, An oil-paper umbrella, was created by MAD Architects for the 2025 Venice International Architecture Biennale (Italian: Mostra di Architettura di Venezia / English: Venice Architecture Biennale).
MAD Architects has created this massive installation inspired by traditional Chinese oiled paper umbrellas, standing proudly outside the China Pavilion. As the white rice paper is applied to the curvilinear structure, the space beneath the umbrella instantly transforms into a miniature natural theater. Light and shadow dance around, creating a flowing atmosphere that envelops every visitor, allowing them to experience an indescribable sense of poetry. This unique creation seamlessly blends traditional craftsmanship with the functional aesthetics of modern technology.
Architecture: An Organism That Breathes
MAD Architects is renowned for its spatial aesthetics embodied in organic and Flow, and this time, the installation An oil-paper umbrella takes this philosophy to the extreme. Architect Ma Yansong, serving as the curator of this year’s China Pavilion, has proposed the concept of Co-Exist to address the global challenges of climate, energy, and population. The design of the oil paper umbrella directly reflects this concept.
The main structure bends gently towards the ground, creating a semi-outdoor space that is both open and private. Cleverly, MAD has left irregular gaps between the umbrella and the ground, allowing air to flow freely and forming a building that will Breath. As visitors step underneath the umbrella, the noise of the exhibition is instantly cut off, the light becomes soft, and shadows stretch and contract with the shifting sun, creating a tranquil meditative atmosphere.
What’s truly avant-garde is that MAD has equipped this oil-paper umbrella with modern environmental technology. The umbrella boasts a misting system integrated into the canopy, which activates automatically in high temperatures to cool the shaded area beneath. Additionally, it features OP Lighting’s SDL smart spectral technology that adjusts based on changes in external weather and light, creating a dynamic play of light and shadow reminiscent of day and night. Under Venice’s unpredictable climate, this umbrella provides visitors with a comfortable microclimate, whether it’s the scorching summer or the rainy autumn.
Rice Paper and Tung Oil
A Modern Rebirth of a Thousand-Year Craft
The most astonishing feature lies in its material use — MAD has chosen traditional Chinese Xuan paper as the primary material, achieving a translucent and waterproof effect through repeated applications of tung oil. This craftsmanship, recognized as an intangible cultural heritage, is endowed with a brand-new architectural vocabulary here.
Xuanzhi, or Chinese rice paper, serves as a traditional medium for calligraphy and painting, renowned for its flexibility, translucence, and durability. After treatment with tung oil, the once fragile sheets become robust and water-resistant, capable of withstanding the erosive elements of a seaside environment like Venice. However, MAD consciously avoids making this material eternal; instead, they embrace the potential for time to leave its mark. As the umbrella faces bask in sunlight and rain, they will gradually yellow and soften, ultimately disintegrating and blending back into nature.
This design approach of Non-permanent challenges the traditional notion of modern architecture as timeless and eternal, introducing a fresh ecological perspective: architecture may not need to be everlasting; rather, it can undergo processes of growth, aging, and returning, much like the elements of nature.
This oiled paper umbrella not only embodies the traditional aesthetic wisdom of China in its form but also resonates with the theme of the Wisdom. Nature. Artificial. Collective. biennial, offering a poetic response to the relationship between contemporary architecture and the environment.
2025 Venice International Architecture Biennale
Date: May 10, 2025 – November 23, 2025
Location: Arsenale – Magazzino Delle Cisterne, Castello 2169/F – 30122 Venice, Italy
Source @madarchitects
