Chicago Architecture Biennial 2025

Details

Celebrating ten years as North America’s leading international platform for contemporary architecture, SHIFT will present groundbreaking exhibitions, installations, and programming at iconic sites across Chicago’s metropolitan area by over 100 visionary architects, designers, and creative practitioners from around the world. Aligned with the Biennial’s mission, all programming will be free and open to the public.

Since its founding in 2015, the Chicago Architecture Biennial has presented more than 400 projects representing over 40 countries, and has attracted more than two million visitors. As a global center for architectural innovation and the Biennial’s founding city, Chicago has long played a key role in shaping the conversation on design, urban development, and the future of cities. From Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to Bertrand Goldberg, John Moutoussamy, Natalie Griffin de Blois, and contemporary spatial thinkers such as Jeanne Gang and Amanda Williams, Chicago’s architectural community has long exerted an enormous influence on the field. This enduring legacy positions the city and the Biennial as a nexus of critical discourse and transformative design, where global voices converge to shape architecture’s future.

The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) will once again serve as the Biennial’s official Presenting Partner, and will host SHIFT’s opening program on September 19, 2025, at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Curated by Florencia Rodriguez – editor, writer, founding Principal of -NESS and PLOT, and Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago – SHIFT signals the opportunity and need to change direction, to think with others, and to set new grounds for the interpretation and design of our built environments. This edition explores how architecture engages with the profound cultural, social, and environmental transformations shaping our world today and explores the possibility of envisioning alternate paths forward.

SHIFT will convene voices from around the world to present projects in a citywide constellation of exhibitions, films, podcasts, dialogues, print and digital publications, and other public events. Together, these programs address urgent questions shaping the spaces we inhabit, such as housing, ecology, and material innovation, to demonstrate architecture’s role in shaping our collective future.

The Chicago Architecture Biennial convenes the world to explore innovative ideas and collectively imagine the future of design. The Biennial’s large-scale exhibitions, talks, performances, films, and other events create opportunities to engage timely global issues through the lens of architecture and design, emphasizing creativity and community participation. Free and open to the public, the Chicago Architecture Biennial stands as North America’s largest international survey of contemporary architecture and design.