Led by Chicago Architecture Biennial artistic director Florencia Rodriguez, SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change signals the opportunity and need to change direction—an invitation to think with others and to set new grounds for the interpretation and design of our built environments. The sixth edition unfolds through capsule exhibitions that are spread across Chicago’s cultural institutions, community landmarks, and unexpected sites, each offering a lens on the present: new housing models, revalued vernaculars, the extraordinary within the ordinary, radical fragments of thought, and new views of ecologies.

Fragmented Manifestos

At the Graham Foundation, Fragmented Manifestos, a capsule exhibition within SHIFT, brings together episodes from recent architectural history through drawings, writings, diagrams, installations, and proposals by Amancio Williams, Sergio Prego, Anne Tyng, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Charles Jencks, Stan Allen, and a collaboration between MOS and Tony Cokes.

Together, these works explore how ideas circulate and transform: through experiments with geometry and form, visionary schemes for new cities, diagrams that map cultural shifts, critical engagements with labor and domesticity, and writing practiced as a form of building. Rather than tracing a single history of architectural “isms,” Fragmented Manifestos gathers these moments as open references—unfinished, plural, and interpretive—and signs of how creative practices reinvent themselves in times of radical change.

SHIFT exhibitions are now open at sites across the city—including the Chicago Cultural Center, Stony Island Arts Bank, and a site-specific installation on the grounds of the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. Across these sites, more than 70 architects, artists, and designers explore the cultural, social, and environmental transformations shaping our world today.

From September through February, large-scale exhibitions, installations, performances, and public programs activate locations throughout Chicago, including the opening of a new exhibition venue with more than 25 projects in November.

Visit chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org to learn more

Florencia Rodriguez is founding principal of -NESS, an international cultural platform for architecture. As an editor, writer, and educator, she creates and leads initiatives related to architecture and design that span publishing, exhibitions, and consultancy, and her work is grounded in the belief that architecture is a vital cultural practice. Rodriguez is also Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Architecture (UIC/SoArch), where she was Director between 2022 and 2025. Before coming to UlC, Rodriguez was a lecturer in architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

In 2010, in Buenos Aires, Rodriguez founded PLOT, a publication focused on global architecture and contemporary discourse. She directed it until 2017, when she co-founded -NESS with Pablo Gerson. From that platform, she has edited books and organized events committed to the dissemination of new narratives, the exploration of alternative forms of design criticism, and discussions about the contemporary role of design.

In 2013, Rodriguez was awarded the Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she researched new modes of criticism and the architecture of the Americas. In collaboration with Gerson, Rodriguez created Monte in 2015, an independent space in Buenos Aires, where she curated and promoted an active public program on architecture and related design disciplines. She has lectured, curated exhibitions, served as a juror and organized international symposia in institutions such as the CCEBA (Centro Cultural del España en Buenos Aires), the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of Illinois Chicago, and the Torcuato Di Tella University, among others.

Rodriguez has received awards for her editorial work and published several articles in books and specialized media such as Domus, Oris, summa+, Arquine, A+U and Uncube. In 2020, together with Mark Lee, she guest-edited America, the 48th issue of the Harvard Design Magazine. Her most recent book, MCHAP 2 Territory & Expeditions was published in 2022, by IITAC, Actar, and -NESS. Rodriguez is currently editing the book Machado Silvetti / Drawings 1975-1999, to be published by Harvard Design Press, and working on a collection of her writings to be published by Park Books.

The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is a non-profit organization dedicated to convening the world to explore innovative ideas and bring people together to collectively imagine and shape the future of design.CAB stands as North America’s largest international survey of contemporary architecture and design.

The signature program of the Chicago Architecture Biennial takes place every two years at the Chicago Cultural Center and sites across the city.  CAB has hosted five editions since 2015: This is a Rehearsal (2023); The Available City (2021); …and other such stories (2019); Make New History (2017); and The State of the Art of Architecture (2015). Over the course of its internationally heralded editions, CAB has presented projects created by more than 400 architects, designers and artists from nearly 50 countries. The sixth edition, Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, opens in September 2025.

The 2025 Biennial Curatorial Team includes Associate Curators Igo Kommers Wender and Chana Haouzi, Assistant Curator Gabriela de Paula Weinert, editorial team members Isabella Moretti and Santiago Bogani, and graphic identity by Estudio Margem with Aleksandra Lindenberg and João Pedro Nogueira.

At the Graham, the exhibition is organized by Sarah Herda, director and Ava Barrett, Porgram and Communications Manager. Production support: Acrylic Design Works, Arda Küçükada, Chad Miller, Document Artist Services, Ism- Furniture, Samuel McChesney, Sean Conway, and Verso. Special thanks to the Graham Foundation staff: Ron Konow, James Pike, Joelle Mercedes, Alexandra Lee Small, Celine Owens, Defne Ergoz.