SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change—2025 Biennial Participants Announced
The Chicago Architecture Biennial is pleased to announce the participants of its sixth edition, SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, which will be held from September 19, 2025, through February 28, 2026.
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.
“Chicago is known the world over as a hub of architecture and design and the 2025 Architecture Biennial will further enrich that legacy,” said Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. “We are proud to welcome this exceptional lineup that will showcase a depth of talents, innovations, and perspectives from all over the world. I encourage visitors from near and far to come see firsthand and take part in our renowned architectural landscape.”
Since its founding in 2015, the Chicago Architecture Biennial has presented more than 500 projects representing over 40 countries, and has attracted more than two million visitors. 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 where global voices converge to shape architecture’s future.
“Throughout history, architecture has reflected the shifts in culture, ideals, and politics here in Chicago and around the world. As we experience unprecedented changes in our country, we continue to see the invaluable impact of bringing people together for these critical conversations through the arts,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. “This year’s Biennial will welcome architects, visionaries, and creatives from around the world to our city to showcase their work, share their ideas, and inspire a new generation.”
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.
“This Biennial reminds the world that Chicago is where bold ideas take shape,” said DCASE Commissioner Clinée Hedspeth. “As a longtime supporter of the Biennial, I’m proud to help champion a platform that challenges, connects, and inspires. The Biennial continues to push the boundaries of how architecture and art help share community and culture.”
“In our commitment to Chicagoans and our international audience, we are thrilled to invite participants to not only bring their innovative ideas to our city, but to apply and execute those ideas as creative solutions to the world’s problems,” says Nora Daley, Co-Chair of the Biennial’s Board of Directors. “Now is an essential moment to continue this conversation because there is a lot we can learn about the ways we can improve communities through design.”
“The Chicago Architecture Biennial provides opportunities for architects, designers, and artists—from emerging to established—to experiment and demonstrate the potential and power of design and the built environment for diverse audiences,” says Sarah Herda, Co-Chair of the Biennial’s Board of Directors. “Our sixth edition participants continue this legacy by developing thoughtful and imaginative ways to advance architecture and inspire others to think about the designed environment in new ways.”
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.
“Architecture is fundamentally about engaging with change—understanding it, responding to it, and proposing ways to improve the conditions we inhabit,” explains Rodriguez. “In that sense, architecture and design are inherently optimistic disciplines—not because they naively accept the status quo, but because they trust in the power of imagination and knowledge to shape more equitable, meaningful futures. We always have choices, and the decisions we make define what becomes possible tomorrow. As Artistic Director of the Chicago Architecture Biennial on its 10th anniversary, I hope to foster a critical platform where bold, imaginative ideas can surface and be shared with the public.”
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 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.
SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change Participants
Explore the list: chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/people
(as of June 18, 2025)
11 x 17 (Denver, United States and Toronto, Canada)
322A (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
adamo-faiden (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Stan Allen (New York, United States)
alsar-atelier (Bogotá, Colombia)
APPARATA (London, United Kingdom)
b+ (bplus.xyz) (Berlin, Germany)
BairBalliet (Chicago and Los Angeles, United States)
Balparda Brunel Oficina de Arquitectura (Rosario, Argentina)
Balsa Crosetto Piazzi and Giorgis Ortiz (Córdoba, Argentina and Boston, United States)
Besler & Sons (Hopewell, United States)
BETA office for architecture and the city (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
The Bittertang Farm (Bainbridge Island and Chicago, United States)
Breathe Architecture (Melbourne, Australia)
Bureau SLA and ZakenMaker (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
BURR (Madrid, Spain)
C+ arquitectas (Madrid, Spain and London, United Kingdom)
La Cabina de la Curiosidad (Quito, Ecuador)
Jason Campbell / ellProjects (Chicago, United States)
Care. (Zürich, Switzerland)
Centro Cooperativista Uruguayo (Montevideo, Uruguay)
Skarn Chaiyawat, Rina Shindo, and Witee Wisuthumporn (Tokyo, Japan and Bangkok, Thailand)
Abigail Chang (New York, United States)
CLUAA (Chicago, United States)
Mariano Clusellas (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
DAVIDSON RAFAILIDIS (Ontario, Canada and Columbus, United States)
Juan Du (Hong Kong, China and Toronto, Canada)
E2A / Piet Eckert und Wim Eckert Architekten (Zürich, Switzerland)
Firat Erdim (Des Moines, United States)
Estudio Flume (São Paulo, Brazil)
Estudio Planta (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
EXTENTS (Ann Arbor, United States)
FAR frohn&rojas (Santiago, Chile; Berlin, Germany; and Los Angeles, United States)
FORMA (Los Angeles and New York, United States)
French 2D (Boston, United States)
Ignacio Galán, David Gissen, Alessandro Orsini, and Nick Roseboro (New York, United States)
Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork (Los Angeles, United States)
Grandeza Studio (Sydney, Australia and Madrid, Spain)
gru.a (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
gt2P (Santiago, Chile)
Hardel Le Bihan Architectes (Paris, France)
Christopher Hawthorne (New Haven, United States)
HHF Architects (Basel, Switzerland)
Stewart Hicks (Chicago, United States)
Ibañez Kim (Los Angeles, United States)
Johnston Marklee (Los Angeles, United States)
Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA (Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Dominic Kießling (Dresden, Germany)
Tamara Kostianovsky (New York, United States)
Kwong Von Glinow (Chicago, United States)
LA DALLMAN (Somerville, United States)
Laboratorio de Arquitectura and José Cubilla (Asunción, Paraguay)
Laboratory of Intersectional Ecologies (Umeå, Sweden and Caracas, Venezuela)
Lacol Cooperative Architecture (Barcelona, Spain)
Sean Lally (Chicago, United States)
LAMA.SP (São Paulo, Brazil and Stockholm, Sweden)
LIGA, Space for Architecture (Mexico City, Mexico)
Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) (Detroit and Los Angeles, United States)
Lütjens Padmanabhan Architekt*innen (Zürich, Switzerland)
MAIO (Barcelona, Spain)
MASS Design Group (Kigali, Rwanda; Boston, Poughkeepsie, and Santa Fe, United States)
Max Nuñez Arquitectos (Santiago, Chile)
Michael Maltzan Architecture (Los Angeles, United States)
MOS and Tony Cokes (New York and Providence, United States)
Ivan L. Munuera and TAKK (Barcelona, Spain and New York, United States)
Natura Futura (Babahoyo, Ecuador)
Nicolas Dorval-Bory Architectes (Paris, France)
Objects of Common Interest (Athens, Greece and New York, United States)
On Architecture (Santiago, Chile)
Oshinowo Studio (Lagos, Nigeria)
Cristóbal Palma (Santiago, Chile)
Paradigma Ariadné (Budapest, Hungary)
Parsons & Charlesworth (Chicago, United States)
Plan Común (Santiago, Chile and Paris, France)
PRODUCTORA (Mexico City, Mexico)
project:if (Cambridge, United States)
R&R STUDIOS (Miami, United States)
RADDAR (São Paulo, Brazil)
Sam Chermayeff Office (Berlin, Germany and New York, United States)
Sayler/Morris (Hudson, United States)
Berndnaut Smilde (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
SO–IL (New York, United States)
Space Popular (Vienna, Austria and Asturias, Spain)
STOSS Landscape Urbanism + MPdL Studio with Mark Lamster (Ann Arbor, Boston, Los Angeles, and Princeton, United States)
Studio Jacob (Vienna, Austria)
Studio Sean Canty (Boston, United States)
Studio Urbane Strategien (Stuttgart, Germany)
Sungjang (Chicago, United States)
TEN (Zürich, Switzerland)
Alfredo Thiermann with Pedro Correa, Ella Neumaier, and Xavier Nueno (Lausanne, Switzerland)
UNA / UNLESS (Venice, Italy)
URBANUS (Meng Yan) (Shenzhen, China)
Urko Sánchez Architects (Nairobi, Kenya, and Madrid, Spain)
Aura Venckunaite (Chicago, United States)
WAI Architecture Think Tank (Ames, United States)
Worofila (Dakar, Senegal)
Oscar Zamora (Cambridge, United States)
Click here to learn more about the participants
Working in collaboration with Rodriguez, SHIFT’s curatorial team includes Associate Co-Curators Igo Kommers Wender and Chana Haouzi, Assistant Curator Gabriela de Paula Weinert, and an editorial team led by Isabella Moretti and Santiago Bogani. A distinct graphic identity has been commissioned from Estudio Margem, a São Paulo based design studio led by Aleksandra Lindenberg and João Pedro Nogueira, to visually articulate and support the curatorial theme of SHIFT.
Major support for the Chicago Architecture Biennial is provided by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Good Chaos, Zell Family Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and the Polk Bros. Foundation.
Additional funding is provided by Cari and Michael J. Sacks, Crown Family Philanthropies, Jack and Sandra Guthman, Anne L. Kaplan, Donna C. King Estate, Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Mansueto Foundation, Susan and Bob Wislow, Illinois Arts Council, Lefkofsky Family Foundation, Neisser Family Foundation, Segal Family Foundation and Scan Design Foundation, among others.
ABOUT THE CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL
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.
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