In May, six organizing members of the group Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA) held a rally in front of the Canada Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. "What do we demand?" they yelled toward a group of around 100 people. "LAND BACK!" they responded.

Then came nine more demands, shouted clearly across the Biennale's iconic Giardini: "On-the-land housing! First Nations Home Building [Design] Lodges! Reparative architecture! A gentrification tax! Surplus properties for housing! Intentional communities for unhoused people! Collective ownership! Mutual-aid housing! Ambient ecosystems commons!"

The opening of this year's Canadian contribution to the Venice Biennale's 18th International Architecture Exhibition felt more like a protest than an exclusive vernissage. While some of the regular art-world pageantry remained — wine, canapés, dignitaries and the press — the opening event was a lot more urgent, raw and chaotic than usual. That was by design. Central to the launch was a question AAHA wanted us to grapple with: Why can't architecture be a form of activism, or at least a tool to help initiate change?

When international audiences visit the pavilion this year, the first thing they'll see is a spray-painted "No Surrender" sign on one of the photographed tents from a Vancouver settlement. There's no hiding the ugly truth here. Unlike many of the other pavilions, which feature conventional exhibitions with the insular jargon of architecture drawings, maquettes and diagrams, Not for Sale! plunges its audience into the heart of the action.

"We came together thinking that the Biennale shouldn't just be a fancy exhibit of static work," architectural and urban historian Sara Stevens told CBC Arts. For this Vancouver-based organizing member of AAHA, the opportunity to represent Canada at this year's exhibition was a chance to show the real potential of architecture to build community and create radical change.