By developing a careful mix of sophistication, education and entertainment, the Venice Architecture Biennale has established itself as the most important international event in its field. Like the first Venice Art Biennales, a century ago, it is a model for other such international exhibitions around the world.

The Venice event “has a leverage that is unequaled anywhere else,” Valentin Bontjes van Beek, professor of architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, said by telephone. “It’s also in a lovely location, and it is satisfying the way that it mirrors the Art Biennale.”

Participation and attendance figures confirm the event’s growing popularity: In 2014, there were 65 participating nations, and the number of visitors more than tripled since the 2000 edition, to 228,000.

After years of erratic programming, the Architecture Biennale has alternated regularly with the Art Biennale since 2000. The director that year, Massimiliano Fuksas, chose a theme titled “City: Less Aesthetics, More Ethics,” which resulted in some modish installations of a type more familiar in the Art event. The Russian pavilion’s commissioner, Gregory Revzin, said Mr. Fuksas’s thinking was reminiscent of “a leading article from a Soviet architectural journal.”