At the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, the project Underground Climate Change: Subsurface Opportunities and Innovations Laboratory by Northwestern University invites a radical shift in how we perceive the ground beneath our feet. Presented within the broader theme “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.”, the installation explores the underrecognized phenomenon of underground climate change — a silent yet growing transformation reshaping the urban subsurface.
Recent studies from Northwestern University’s team reveal that temperature shifts in subsurface environments, driven by human activity, are altering soil stability, water systems, and the built foundations of cities. The Underground Climate Change Laboratory reimagines these challenges as opportunities. Instead of treating underground heat as waste, the project investigates how it can be harnessed — turning thermal pollution into a renewable energy resource.
This vision aligns with the mission of GEOEG (Geothermal Energy Extraction and Geostructures) and Enerdrape, two pioneering systems advancing sustainable use of subterranean heat. GEOEG focuses on integrating energy geostructures into urban design — foundations and tunnels that double as thermal exchangers. Enerdrape, meanwhile, has developed modular geothermal panels capable of capturing waste heat from underground environments such as parking garages, basements, and metro systems. Together, they point to a future where cities can generate and store clean energy from their own hidden layers.
The Northwestern installation at La Biennale blends architecture, data science, and environmental engineering. Through digital visualizations and physical models, it illustrates the heat dynamics occurring beneath major cities and the potential pathways for adaptive design. This intersection of natural and artificial intelligence mirrors the Biennale’s curatorial theme: understanding intelligence not as a singular human attribute, but as a shared capacity — across materials, systems, and species — to sense, adapt, and evolve collectively.
The laboratory’s approach suggests that the city of the future must extend its design thinking below ground. Subsurface environments — long regarded as static infrastructure zones — are now recognized as living, changing ecosystems shaped by climate forces and human activity. By linking data-driven modeling with architectural imagination, the project reveals how the urban underground can become both a site of awareness and of regeneration.
Ultimately, Underground Climate Change transforms an invisible crisis into a visible opportunity. It reframes heat waste as energy potential, the underground as a dynamic design frontier, and intelligence as a networked collaboration between the natural, the artificial, and the collective. At La Biennale di Venezia, this vision calls on architects, engineers, and urbanists alike to rethink not only what we build — but where and how deeply our designs can adapt to the changing climate beneath us.
