The participants for the 6th Chicago Architecture Biennial have been announced, scheduled to take place from September 19, 2025, to February 28, 2026.

Themed as SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, over 100 forward-thinking architects, designers, and creative practitioners from around the globe will showcase their work at iconic locations throughout the Chicago metropolitan area as part of SHIFT's tenth anniversary as North America's premier international platform for contemporary architecture. 

All programming will be free and accessible to the public, aligning with the Biennial's objectives.

alsar-atelier, Oscar Zamora, Cesar Salomon, and Yazmin Crespo, Hydroponics Module, Colombia, 2024. Photography © Mateo Perez

"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 inception in 2015, the Chicago Architecture Biennial has drawn over two million people and showcased over 400 projects from over 40 nations. Chicago, the founder city of the Biennial and a global hub for architectural innovation, has long been a major influence on the discourse around design, urban planning, and the future of cities.

BURR. Horst Arts and Music - Rain Room, Belgium, 2024. Photography © Maru Serrano

Chicago's architectural community has historically had a significant impact on the field, from Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to Bertrand Goldberg, John Moutoussamy, Natalie Griffin de Blois, and more recent spatial theorists like Jeanne Gang and Amanda Williams. Because of this lasting heritage, the city and the Biennial are positioned as a hub for critical discussion and innovative design, where voices from around the world come together to influence the direction of architecture.

On September 19, 2025, SHIFT's inaugural program will take place in the Chicago Cultural Center, hosted by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), which will once again be the Biennial's official Presenting Partner.

Care. Model of a project in the context of the course Building Pleasures 03, Project by Clara Della Casa, Elisa Cudré-Mauroux, Eva Dimarco, and Sascha Coston, Teaching team: Anna Puigjaner, Dafni Retzepi, Ethel Baraona Pohl, Lisa Maillard, Luis Úrculo, Pol Esteve Castelló, and He Shen, 2024. Image: Luis Úrculo, courtesy of Care

SHIFT, which is curated by Florencia Rodriguez, an associate professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, editor, writer, founding principal of -NESS and PLOT, and a signal for the need and opportunity to shift course, collaborate with others, and establish new standards for how we interpret and design our built environments. 

This volume looks at how architecture responds to the significant environmental, social, and cultural changes that are reshaping our world now and considers the potential for alternative futures.

Estudio Planta, Joselevich / Rascovsky arqs. Edificio Commodore, Argentina, 2019. Photography © Javier Agustin Rojas

"Architecture is fundamentally about engaging with change—understanding it, responding to it, and proposing ways to improve the conditions we inhabit," explained 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," Rodriguez added.

EXTENTS. Conditions Room, Image Matters, 2018. Image: Courtesy of EXTENTS

In order to showcase projects in a citywide constellation of exhibitions, movies, podcasts, conversations, print and digital publications, and other public events, SHIFT will bring together voices from all over the world. 

In order to illustrate how architecture shapes our shared future, these programs collectively tackle pressing issues influencing the places we live in, such as housing, environment, and material innovation.

French 2D. Bay State Cohousing, Malden, 2023. Photography © Naho Kubota

The confirmed participant list for SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change is as follows:

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)

gru.a. A Praia e o Tempo, Brazil, 2019. Photo: Courtesy of gru.a

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)

Kashef Chowdhury / URBANA. Friendship Centre, Bangladesh, 2008. Photography © Hélène Binet

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)

Kwong Von Glinow. Washington Boulevard Rooftop Addition, Chicago, 2023-ongoing. Image: Courtesy of Kwong Von Glinow

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)

TAKK (Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño). Fellaria’s Time Capsule at the exhibition Design to Protect, Milano, 2024. Photography © José Hevia

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)

Oshinowo Studio. Ngarannam UNDP, Nigeria, 2022. Photography © Tolu Sanusi

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)

Sayler/Morris. Frame of the short film The Amazon is Elsewhere, 2025. Image: Courtesy of Sayler/ Morris

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)

Florencia Rodriguez, CAB 6's Artistic Director. Courtesy Chicago Architecture Biennial. Image © Noah Sheldon

Alongside Rodriguez, SHIFT's curatorial team consists of Assistant Curator Gabriela de Paula Weinert, Associate Co-Curators Igo Kommers Wender and Chana Haouzi, and an editing staff headed by Isabella Moretti and Santiago Bogani. 

To visually express and support the curatorial subject of SHIF, a unique graphic identity has been commissioned from Estudio Margem, a SaÃo Paulo-based design studio run by Alexandre Lindenberg and João Pedro Nogueira.

The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Good Chaos, Zell Family Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Polk Bros. Foundation, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts all contribute significantly to the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

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.

The top image in the article: La Cabina de la Curiosidad. Chaki Wasi, Artisanal Center of the Shalalá Community, Ecuador, 2024. Photography © Jag Studio.

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