Diller Scofidio + Renfro serves up canal water coffee at Venice Architecture Biennale

Visitors to the Venice Architecture Biennale can drink coffee made from the city's canal water in a Golden Lion-winning intervention by US practice Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

Named Canal Cafe, the structure sits on the edge of Venice's Arsenale building complex and draws water from its lagoon, part of the city's famous network of canals.

The canal waters are not normally safe to swim in, let alone drink, but once they have passed through the cafe's on-site filtration system – a hybrid of natural and artificial methods that includes a mini wetland topped with grasses – they are made potable.

Studio collaborated with Michelin-starred chef

"What we're doing is we're reaching into the canal there with that pipe," said Diller Scofidio + Renfro co-founder Elizabeth Diller at the launch of the project last week.

"We're bringing that water, we're pumping it up, and we're purifying it in front of your eyes," she told Dezeen. "And then we're going to steam it and we're going to force it through coffee grinds to make the best espresso, at least in Venice."

The claim to having the best espresso comes partly from having Michelin-starred Italian chef Davide Oldani as a collaborator, and partly because particular attention has been paid to the mix of minerals, which come directly from the Venice canal and help to give the coffee its flavour.

Developed with engineering companies Natural Systems Utilities and Sodai, the Canal Cafe's system channels the water through a bio-filtration system that removes sludge and toxins and then splits the water into two streams.

One stream continues to flow through the natural membrane bioreactor, where plants and bacteria purify the water. This retains the water's mineral composition but leaves the salinity too high for drinking.

Meanwhile, the second stream goes through an artificial filtration process using ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes. This creates distilled water that is stripped of salts and the minerals that bring out the flavour in the coffee grinds.

At this point, with the goal of making coffee that is not just drinkable but desirable, the two streams are blended so that the mineral-rich, naturally filtered water can enter the mix.

Design intended "to bring a sort of shock and disgust"

Diller Scofidio + Renfro describes the natural filtration system as a "micro-wetland", with giant tanks holding what seem to be long grasses, dirt and murky, green-tinged water.

The goal is to nudge the public into rethinking water reuse and embracing circular solutions at which they might previously have baulked.

"We wanted to bring a sort of shock and disgust at the same time as deep pleasure – the pleasure of drinking beautiful coffee in a beautiful place," said Diller. "That juxtaposition is very, very important to us."

Diller also highlighted the seriousness of water scarcity, which may require us to make use of more purification technologies more frequently in the future, Diller said.

"We're in an era of mass tourism and climate change," she continued.

"It's bound to get worse, so we have to think about infrastructure, about distributed infrastructure, and about the potential to do this and also use natural systems to do this."

Project awarded Venice Architecture Biennale's top prize

The Canal Cafe served regular coffee at the press preview on Thursday as the organisers are awaiting approval from the Italian authorities, but curator Carlo Ratti said he expected the system to start operating in the coming weeks.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Natural Systems Utilities say that the water is constantly and automatically monitored to make sure it is safe to drink.

Canal Cafe was awarded the Venice Architecture Biennale's top prize, the Golden Lion for the best participation in the international exhibition.

The jury praised its "demonstration of how the city of Venice can be a laboratory to speculate how to live on the water, while offering a contribution to the public space of Venice."

Other winners included Bahrain's national pavilion and Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler's project visualising the evolution of technology and society since 1500.

Elsewhere at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the studio also created a temporary translucent library in the Giardini della Biennale.

The photography is by Iwan Baan.

The Venice Architecture Biennale takes place from 10 May to 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.

Photography by Iwan Baan.

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