RECORD’s monthly list of upcoming and ongoing exhibitions, events, and competitions.

Ongoing Exhibitions

Democratic Design: Space for Cooperation, Collaboration and Compromise
Berlin
Through January 28, 2026
Showing at Aedes Architecture Forum, Democratic Design investigates how architecture, planning processes, and public spaces can promote democratic engagement and social cohesion; a series of projects with this aim is presented, with a special focus on examples in Berlin. Developed by ANA Architecture and Rimini Berlin Graphics, the exhibition design incorporates a variety of media, including texts, photos, plans, films, objects, games, and models. See aedes-arc.de.

TO·BE·LONGING: Portraits of Queer Living
Toronto
Through February 1, 2026
Curated by architect and educator Quan Thai, this traveling exhibition challenges entrenched notions of domesticity and invites visitors to imagine home as a fluid and adaptive space that embraces identity, vulnerability, and resilience. At its core, the show is a living archive—a collection of nearly 40 artifacts contributed by queer community members across North America. These everyday objects, from cherished keepsakes to functional items, tell stories of memory, identity, and chosen family, offering a glimpse into the multiplicity of queer domestic life. TO·BE·LONGING will be on view at University of Waterloo School of Architecture through January 16, and the DesignTO Festival from January 23 until February 1, 2026. See uwaterloo.ca.

Bruce Goff: Material Worlds 
Chicago
Through March 29, 2026
This major retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago celebrates the unbounded creative practice of American architect Bruce Goff (1904–82). Best known for his groundbreaking, idiosyncratic single-family homes in suburban and rural areas across the U.S., Goff charted an alternative narrative for a modern architecture imbued with individuality, materiality, and fantastical invention. The first major show of the architect’s work in more than 30 years, Material Worlds features contextual exhibition design by New York–based architecture firm New Affiliates and is drawn primarily from the Art Institute’s vast Goff collection and archive. The project features over 200 works, including architectural drawings, elaborate architectural models, and a selection of Goff’s ambitious but little-known abstract paintings. The exhibition also mines his diverse collections, including seashells and crystals, popular magazines, clothing, and Japanese and Chinese embroidery. Additionally, the installation brings to life the architect’s intense engagement with music through a customized player piano featuring his own musical compositions. See artic.edu.

Load-Bearing Walls 
Amsterdam
Through March 31, 2026
Now on view at the Amsterdam Architecture Centre for Architecture, this exhibition showcases a series of models on a dollhouse scale by Ukrainian artist and architect Daria Khozhai, whose practice weaves together art, architecture, and psychology. Each model embodies a place that carries the weight of memory behind its walls, homes marked by violence, loss, displacement, and silence. Built from therapy journals, worn fabrics, family relics, and fragments of domestic life, they translate deeply personal experiences into spatial form. See arcam.nl.

Luigi Pellegrin: Prefiguring Rome
Rome
Through April 6, 2026
Presented by MAXXI, this retrospective of Luigi Pellegrin (1925–2001) explores the Italian architect’s visionary projects, including large-scale macrostructures designed for urban landscapes. In particular, the show focuses on Pellegrin’s work for Rome in the 1990s, including his proposals for the Great Jubilee in 2000 and his research on the city’s railway areas, which anticipated connections and infrastructural developments that remain relevant today. See maxxi.art.

Intersections: The Architecture of Victor Adegbite and Charles Polónyi in Ghana
Culver City, California
Through April 12, 2026
In the 1960s, Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, envisioned the capital city of Accra as a showcase of African statehood and invited architects to help shape its future. Intersections, currently showing at the Wende Museum, traces the collaboration of two architects who responded to that call: Ghanaian Victor Adegbite (1925–2014) and Hungarian Charles Polónyi (1928–2002). The exhibition centers on housing projects designed by Adegbite and Polónyi, which embodied the many dimensions of independence, from representing a new elite to the state’s provision of housing for all social groups. By juxtaposing family archives from the United States and Hungary—preserved by the architects’ respective daughters—the exhibition both reconstructs and reenacts an encounter from 60 years ago. Intersections is curated Michael Dziwornu and Łukasz Stanek, in collaboration with Dana Salama. See wendemuseum.org.

Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules
San Francisco
Through April 19, 2026
Presented by the San Francsico Museum of Modern Art, Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules is the first major retrospective of the acclaimed photographer. Born in the Dominican Republic and based in Monterrey, Mexico, Cartagena explores social and environmental issues through a range of photographic practices that include documentary images, collage, appropriated vernacular photographs, and AI-generated video. His work captures the complexities of suburban sprawl, the U.S.–Mexico border, and increasing economic inequality. Though rooted in Mexico, Cartagena’s photographic series speak to shared global conditions of migration, environmental crisis, and unchecked development. See sfmoma.org.

Upcoming Exhibitions

Noguchi’s New York
New York City
February 4–July 5, 2026
On view at the Noguchi Museum, this exhibition outlines how New York shaped the artist’s thinking and how Isamu Noguchi, in turn, reshaped the city, through sculptures, public art, unrealized civic proposals, and radical ideas for how people could interact with urban space. Curated by Kate Wiener, the exhibition will be accompanied by the first-ever animated recreations of Noguchi’s unrealized playgrounds and public spaces, made by Jack Cunningham and Nicolas Ménard. Featuring more than 50 works, the show spans six decades, from Noguchi’s early years working from a modest studio in Greenwich Village’s MacDougal Alley to his mature civic projects. See noguchi.org.

PLATFORM: Simone Brewster
London
February 13, 2026–January 2027
This show is the second edition in the Design Museum’s PLATFORM series, an annual exhibition showcasing a contemporary designer or studio. Producing work across scales and disciplines, London-based Simone Brew­ster employs a visual language that is architectural and sculptural, rich with material histories and layered with references ranging from palaeolithic fertility deities to African diasporic traditions. Visitors will see the range of her practice, from jewelry and furniture to sculpted forms and public architecture. See designmuseum.org.

Ahead of the Curve
Washington, D.C.
February 18–May 20, 2026
Presented by the District Architecture Center, Ahead of the Curve explores why the state of California was a particularly fruitful place for women to practice architecture in the 20th century. Beyond its size, its sunshine, and its booming economy, the exhibition speculates that, as an early adopter of legislation to expand women’s rights and freedoms, California uniquely enabled female architects to achieve professional success. Curated by Elizabeth Keslacy, an architectural historian and educator at the Virginia Tech School of Architecture, the exhibition pairs a timeline of women’s freedom with 10 profiles of women who exemplified the diversity of architectural practices in the 20th century. See dcarchcenter.org.

Lee Bul: 1998 to Now
Hong Kong
March 14–August 2026
This spring, M+ presents the most comprehensive survey of South Korean artist Lee Bul’s career to date, exhibiting major works from her studio and from collections across Asia and beyond. The show opens with an immersive open display featuring architectural installations from Bul’s Mon grand récit (My Big Story) series (2005–ongoing). The second section presents examples of Bul’s Cyborg and Anagram series from the late 1990s and early 2000s. The final chapter, evoking an artist’s studio, features a constellation of drawings, sketches, and maquettes, revealing how Bul conceptualizes and realizes her artworks. The traveling exhibition debuted at Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, in September 2025. See mplus.org.hk.

Hella Jongerius: Whispering Things
Weil am Rhein, Germany
March 14–September 6, 2026
This March, Vitra Design Museum will present the first major retrospective of designer Hella Jongerius. Since the start of her career in the 1990s, she has worked in various media that include textiles, ceramics, furniture, lighting, and sculpture. The exhibition will explore all phases of Jongerius’s oeuvre, including her collaborations with Maharam, KLM, Camper, and Vitra. The show is based on Jongerius’s studio archive, acquired by the Vitra Design Museum in 2024. See design-museum.de.

Upcoming Events

Heimtextil
Frankfurt, Germany
January 13–16, 2026
This year, Heimtextil, a global textile and interior-design trade show, will focus on the intersection between high tech and craftsmanship. The event will include over 3,000 exhibitors, as well as talks by industry leaders. The featured speaker, the Milan-based architect and designer Patricia Urquiola, will discuss her creative process and present her immersive installation, which engages with artificial intelligence. See heimtextil.messefrankfurt.com.

The Kitchen & Bath Industry Show 
Orlando, Florida 
February 17–19, 2026
KBIS, North America’s largest trade show for kitchen and bath design, brings together 650 exhibitors to present the industry’s latest products, trends, and technologies. The event will also offer live product demonstrations, CEU-accredited sessions with design professionals, networking opportunities, and award ceremonies celebrating the winners of Best of KBIS Awards, DesignBites, and Best Booth Awards. See kbis.com

Email information to kuthg@bnpmedia.com.