Eleven billowing white fiberglass panels, each stretching more than 65 feet high, fold around the front of Christian de Portzamparc’s flagship store for Christian Dior in Seoul." A narrow gap in the draped facade reveals the glazed entrance framed by a delicately perforated metal skin.

Chicago's Next Generation The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial (October 3, 2015 through January 3, 2016) is a global event. With over 60 firms or studios featured—representing more than 30 countries across six continents—it is also drawing attendees from all over the world. Titled The State of the Art of Architecture, the exhibition, curated by Sarah Herda and Joseph Grima, reaches beyond the national conversation to generate a larger discussion about the future of the built environment.

Operating on the fringes of architecture, landscape design, and planning, Conor O’Shea’s firm, Hinterlands Urbanism and Landscape, takes a high-level look at exurban areas surrounding cities. Founded in January, the one-man-shop’s work focuses on these hinterlands—places just beyond the borders of major urban centers like Chicago—and is almost entirely speculative. 

“We tend to relate and connect to other people through stories. We can find ways of using narrative to help us empathize with one another,” says architect and UIC instructor Grant Gibson. “I thought my firm needed to be rooted in a premise that understood and advocated for that.” 

After spending more than a decade in L.A. working for boutique design firms, on projects ranging from set design to startup offices, Kelly Bair, 38, moved to Chicago four years ago to take a tenure-track teaching position at UIC. 

The 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial purports to be the largest survey of contemporary architecture to hit North America to date, and leading the monumental effort as its artistic directors are Sarah Herda and Joseph Grima.