The sixth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB), SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, will “address urgent questions shaping the spaces we inhabit, such as housing, ecology, and material innovation, to demonstrate architecture’s role in shaping our collective future,” curators said. This week, CAB named over 100 architects, designers, and creative practitioners from around the world as contributors.
CAB 6 is curated by Florencia Rodriguez, CAB’s first Latina artistic director, as previously reported by AN. The SHIFT curatorial team also includes associate co-curators Igo Kommers Wender and Chana Haouzi, as well as assistant curator Gabriela de Paula Weinert.
“Architecture is fundamentally about engaging with change—understanding it, responding to it, and proposing ways to improve the conditions we inhabit,” Rodriguez shared in a press release. “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.”
The past iteration, CAB 5, This is a Rehearsal, emphasized continuous experimentation within architecture, positioning the practice “not as a fixed outcome, but as an evolving, collaborative process.” This iteration marks the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s tenth anniversary.
“In our commitment to Chicagoans and our international audience, we are thrilled to invite participants to not only bring their innovative ideas to our city, but to apply and execute those ideas as creative solutions to the world’s problems,” said Nora Daley, CAB’s Board of Directors co-chair. “Now is an essential moment to continue this conversation because there is a lot we can learn about the ways we can improve communities through design.”
Participant List
11 x 17 (Denver and Toronto)
322A (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
adamo-faiden (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Stan Allen (New York)
alsar-atelier (Bogotá, Colombia)
APPARATA (London)
bplus.xyz (Berlin, Germany)
BairBalliet (Chicago and Los Angeles)
Balparda Brunel Oficina de Arquitectura (Rosario, Argentina)
Balsa Crosetto Piazzi and Giorgis Ortiz (Córdoba, Argentina, and Boston)
Besler & Sons (Hopewell, New Jersey)
BETA office for architecture and the city (Amsterdam)
The Bittertang Farm (Bainbridge Island, Washington, and Chicago)
Breathe Architecture (Melbourne, Australia)
Bureau SLA and ZakenMaker (Amsterdam)
BURR (Madrid)
C+ arquitectas (Madrid and London)
La Cabina de la Curiosidad (Quito, Ecuador)
Jason Campbell / ellProjects (Chicago)
Care. (Zurich)
Centro Cooperativista Uruguayo (Montevideo, Uruguay)
Skarn Chaiyawat, Rina Shindo, and Witee Wisuthumporn (Tokyo and Bangkok, Thailand)
Abigail Chang (New York)
CLUAA (Chicago)
Mariano Clusellas (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
DAVIDSON RAFAILIDIS (Ontario, Canada, and Columbus, Ohio)
Juan Du (Hong Kong and Toronto)
E2A / Piet Eckert und Wim Eckert Architekten (Zurich)
Firat Erdim (Des Moines, Iowa)
Estudio Flume (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Estudio Planta (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
EXTENTS (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
FAR frohn&rojas (Santiago, Chile; Berlin; and Los Angeles)
FORMA (Los Angeles and New York)
French 2D (Boston)
Ignacio Galán, David Gissen, Alessandro Orsini, and Nick Roseboro (New York, United States)
Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork (Los Angeles)
Grandeza Studio (Sydney, Australia, and Madrid)
gru.a (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
gt2P (Santiago, Chile)
Hardel Le Bihan Architectes (Paris)
Christopher Hawthorne (New Haven, Connecticut)
HHF Architects (Basel, Switzerland)
Stewart Hicks (Chicago)
Ibañez Kim (Los Angeles)
Johnston Marklee (Los Angeles)
Kashef Chowdhury/URBANA (Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Dominic Kießling (Dresden, Germany)
Tamara Kostianovsky (New York)
Kwong Von Glinow (Chicago)
LA DALLMAN (Somerville, Massachusetts)
Laboratorio de Arquitectura and José Cubilla (Asunción, Paraguay)
Laboratory of Intersectional Ecologies (Umea, Sweden, and Caracas, Venezuela)
Lacol Cooperative Architecture (Barcelona)
Sean Lally (Chicago)
LAMA.SP (São Paulo, Brazil and Stockholm)
LIGA, Space for Architecture (Mexico City)
Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (Detroit and Los Angeles)
Lütjens Padmanabhan Architekt*innen (Zurich)
MAIO (Barcelona)
MASS Design Group (Kigali, Rwanda; Boston, Poughkeepsie, New York; and Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Max Nuñez Arquitectos (Santiago, Chile)
Michael Maltzan Architecture (Los Angeles)
MOS and Tony Cokes (New York and Providence, Rhode Island)
Ivan L. Munuera and TAKK (Barcelona and New York)
Natura Futura (Babahoyo, Ecuador)
Nicolas Dorval-Bory Architectes (Paris)
Objects of Common Interest (Athens, Greece, and New York)
On Architecture (Santiago, Chile)
Oshinowo Studio (Lagos, Nigeria)
Cristóbal Palma (Santiago, Chile)
Paradigma Ariadné (Budapest, Hungary)
Parsons & Charlesworth (Chicago)
Plan Común (Santiago, Chile, and Paris)
PRODUCTORA (Mexico City)
project:if (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
R&R STUDIOS (Miami)
RADDAR (São Paulo, Brazil)
Sam Chermayeff Office (Berlin and New York)
Sayler/Morris (Hudson, New York)
Berndnaut Smilde (Amsterdam)
SO–IL (New York)
Space Popular (Vienna, Austria, and Asturias, Spain)
STOSS Landscape Urbanism + MPdL Studio with Mark Lamster (Ann Arbor, Michigan; Boston; Los Angeles; and Princeton, New Jersey)
Studio Jacob (Vienna, Austria)
Studio Sean Canty (Boston)
Studio Urbane Strategien (Stuttgart, Germany)
Sungjang (Chicago)
TEN (Zurich)
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)
Aura Venckunaite (Chicago)
WAI Architecture Think Tank (Ames, Iowa)
Worofila (Dakar, Senegal)
Oscar Zamora (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
The sixth Chicago Architecture Biennial will open September 19, 2025. It is the result of the city of Chicago’s 2012 Cultural Plan, which was created to amplify the cultural landscape of the city. Since its founding, CAB has produced five editions, featuring over 500 projects across 40 countries.
CAB6 is presented in partnership with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Other major partners include Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Good Chaos, Zell Family Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and the Polk Bros. Foundation.
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