Yesterday the Board of the Venice Biennale selected the Dublin-based architecture team Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara to curate the 16th International Architecture Exhibition, otherwise known as the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture.

The duo founded Grafton Architects in 1977 and made their first Biennale appearance in 2002. In 2012, their firm won the Silver Lion for a promising practice. Their projects are mostly instututional—for universities, schools, and governments—and are spread across the globe. Most recently, their Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC) building, seen above, won the inaugural 2016 RIBA International Prize.

Paolo Baratta, chairman of the Venice Biennale board, released this statement on Farrell and McNamara and the upcoming Biennale:

The Exhibition curated by Alejandro Aravena offered visitors a critical overview of the worldwide evolution of architecture and underlined how important it is that a qualified demand on the part of individuals and communities be met by an equally effective response, thereby confirming that architecture is one of civil society’s instruments for organizing the space in which it lives and works.

Along these lines, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara will continue to address the same theme but from the point of view of the quality of the public and private space, of urban space, of the territory and of the landscape as the main ends of architecture. The curators, who are well-known for the refinement of their work, are also known for their intense didactic activity and their ability to involve and fascinate new generations.

The biennale will begin May 26, 2018, and run through November 25, 2018.