About the program
Moderated by Florencia Rodriguez, Igo Wender Kommers, and Chana Haouzi with participants Iman Fayyad, R&R, Alexander Eisenschmidt, Space Popular, Abigail Chang, Adamo-Faiden, Erin Besler, The Bittertang Farm, Kwong Von Glinow, Michael Meredith, Christopher Hawthorne, Samuel Medina of New York Review of Architecture, and Tiffany Jow of Untapped.
As part of SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change—the sixth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial—this panel brings together Biennial participants and critics for a fast-paced, collective exploration of how architecture can respond to a world in flux. Moderated by Artistic Director Florencia Rodriguez with co-curators Igo Kommers Wender and Chana Haouzi, the program features architects from across the Biennial’s thematic capsules—Inhabit, Outhabit; Ecologies; The Ordinary-EXTRA; and Melting Solids.
In a dynamic format, each participant will respond to the central question of SHIFT—how does your work address change? Their provocations will spark a larger conversation on housing, ecologies, and the beauty of the everyday, offering insight into how architects are rethinking fundamentals and experimenting with new possibilities for practice. The session closes with reflections from architectural critics, underscoring the vital role of criticism in shaping public discourse and reaffirming architecture’s capacity to imagine better futures.