Chicago Architecture Biennial 2025: SHIFT Explores Radical Change Through Design

The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) has officially announced the participants of its 2025 edition. It’s called SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change. The 6th edition of the Biennial, which will run from September 19, 2025 to February 28, 2026, will help us understand architecture’s relationship to the profound social, political, ecological, and technological transformations taking place around the world. First launched in 2015, the Chicago Biennial has become a major international platform for contemporary architecture in North America. This year marks its 10th anniversary, and it brings together both contemporary architecture today and the most important developments and individuals in forward-looking architecture, design and urbanism.

A Global and Diverse Roster

This year’s edition of the Biennial features more than 100 architects, designers, artists, and interdisciplinary creators from six continents. Participants will present a wide range of exhibitions, installations, urban interventions, and site-based projects across Chicago, transforming the city into a dynamic landscape of architectural experimentation and cultural exchange.

The theme of the 2025 edition, SHIFT, emphasizes the rethinking of architecture in light of current crises and future uncertainties. Opening up a space for “collective rethinking”, visitors of the Biennial will experience a thought-provoking experience on architecture and the future.

Representing Innovation Across Borders

The selected participants include both well-known names and rising talents from cities such as Buenos Aires, Lagos, Tokyo, Zurich, Dhaka, Sydney, and Nairobi. The diversity in geographic representation underscores the Biennial’s mission to amplify multiple voices and approaches to architecture in an increasingly interconnected world.

The 2025 roster features leading-edge firms like SO–IL (New York), MASS Design Group (Kigali and Boston), and Johnston Marklee (Los Angeles), alongside conceptual collectives like The Bittertang Farm (Bainbridge Island and Chicago) and WAI Architecture Think Tank (Ames, United States). Collaborations between architects and artists are also spotlighted, such as the pairing of MOS and Tony Cokes (New York and Providence), signaling a hybridization of disciplines at the heart of this year’s program.

Expanding the Biennial Format

Beyond the traditional Biennial exhibitions, the SHIFT theme will open in multiple venues and neighborhoods across Chicago, where participants/visitors will experience a variety of temporary spaces, workshops, and talks in different venues, engaging with the city’s rich architectural heritage.

In fact, this “decentered model” in this year’s exhibitions aims to break down institutional boundaries and invite a wider public engagement with architecture as a social and political act! The SHIFT themed Biennial will obviously establish a dialogue with the future with its venues, exhibitions, temporary establishments, workshop and seminar programs, both from the perspective of architecture and all interdisciplinary art and urbanism.

With its unique blend of local relevance and international reach, the Chicago Architecture Biennial continues to be a cornerstone event for professionals, students, and the broader public seeking to engage with the future of the built environment.

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