Architecture News

Chicago Architecture Biennial Announces Participants for Sixth Edition

kwongvonglinow — Washington Boulevard Rooftop Addition (Chicago, 2023–ongoing) by CAB 6 participant and 2022 Design Vanguard Kwong Von Glinow. *Photo courtesy Kwong Von Glinow*

Argentinian architect, educator, and critic Florencia Rodriguez is artistic director of CAB 6. Photo by Noah Sheldon, courtesy CAB

With just three months to go until its opening day on September 19, the Chicago Architecture Biennial has revealed the participants for its sixth edition, SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change. The news follows the November 1, 2024, announcement of Florencia Rodriguez, director of and associate professor at the University of Illinois Chicago’s School of Architecture, as artistic director of CAB 6, which set outs to “explore 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 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,” said Rodriguez in a statement. “We always have choices, and the decisions we make define what becomes possible tomorrow.”

Organizationally, the Biennial has experienced shifts itself over the past year. Following the naming of Rodriguez as artistic director of the latest cycle (CAB 6 marks the tenth anniversary of the event), it was announced in February that longtime Chicago gallerist Jennifer Armetta had stepped in as CAB’s new executive director. She replaces longtime CAB-er Rachel Kaplan, who oversaw the last two editions as director and is now with the Art Institute of Chicago. Also announced earlier this year were two new board co-chairs, Graham Foundation director Sarah Herda and Nora Daley, chair of the Illinois Arts Council. Joining Rodriguez as associate co-curators are Igo Kommers Wender and Chana Haouzi, along with assistant curator Gabriela de Paula Weinert.

The landmark Chicago Cultural Center will once again serve as anchor venue for the Biennial’s opening program with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events returning as official presenting partner. Like past cycles of CAB, including the 2021 and 2023 editions (curated by David Brown and Floating Museum, respectively) SHIFT will unfold at myriad site across town in what the organizers describes as a “citywide constellation of exhibitions, films, podcasts, dialogues, print and digital publications, and public events.”

Ngarannam UNDP, (Nigeria, 2022) by Lagos-based architect and CAB 6 participant Tosin Oshinowo. Photo © Tolu Sanusi.

Edificio Commodore by CAB 6 participant Estudio Planta with Joselevich / Rascovsky arqs. (Argentina, 2019. Photo by Javier Agustin Rojas

As for the just-announced participants, the sixth edition of CAB 6, like with past iterations, promises to be a markedly global affair. Among the more than 100 participating architects, designers, and creative practitioners is a particularly strong showing of architects from Latin America—Rodriguez herself hails from Buenos Aires. They include, among others, Argentinian firm Estudio Planta, Rio de Janeiro-based gru.a, Mexico’s Productora, and Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize for Emerging Practice–winning Ecuadorian studio Natura Futura. Notable participants with U.S. practices include Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, MASS Design Group, Michael Maltzan Architecture, SO–Il, Studio Sean Canty, and CAB 2 artistic directors Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee of Johnston Marklee.

The participant list also features a generous handful of former Design Vanguards such as Worofilia (Dakar), TAKK (Barcelona), French 2D (Boston) Max Nuñez Arquitectos (Santiago), Space Popular (Vienna), HHF (Switzerland), MOS (New York), Urbanus (Shenzhen), and Chicago’s own Kwong von Glinow. (Other locally based participants include Sean Lally, Stewart Hicks, Sungjang, CLUAA, Parsons & Charlesworth, and more). The full list of current participants can be viewed here.

Bay State Cohousing (Malden, Massachusetts 2023) by French 2D (1) and Fellaria’s Time Capsule at the Design to Protect exhibition by TAKK (Milan, 2024) (2). Both studios are Design Vanguards. Photos © Naho Kubota (1) and José Hevia (2)

The September 19 kickoff of CAB 6 follows two major events hosted by RECORD in Chicago, both at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Crown Hall: The 2025 Women in Architecture Awards on the evening on September 9 and the latest edition of Sustainability in Practice on September 10, a day-long event with speakers that include Jeanne Gang, Stefano Boeri, Kevin Carmody, Andy Groarke, and Dillon Pranger. Registration for both is now open.

Stay tuned for more updates on the opening of and programming for CAB 6, which will conclude on February 28, 2026.

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Matt Hickman is senior news/digital editor at Architectural Record. Previously, he served as Senior Editor at The Architect’s Newspaper and has over a decade of experience as a freelance writer and editor specializing in historic preservation, public space, and the intersection of the natural world and built environment. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Matt holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from The New School.