As the architectural world continues to navigate complex dialogues surrounding sustainability, historical preservation, community equity, and the reinterpretation of the built environment, a compelling lineup of global exhibitions, landmark events, and forward-looking competitions offers a comprehensive look at the profession’s past, present, and future. From major retrospectives honoring architectural giants to thought-provoking explorations of social impact and marginalized design histories, cultural institutions around the world are presenting programming that challenges conventional narratives and redefines the boundaries of architectural practice.
Upcoming Exhibitions
Constructed Geographies: Paulo Mendes da Rocha
Matosinhos, Portugal — May 26, 2023–February 1, 2024
At the Casa da Arquitectura, Portugal’s premier center for architecture, a major exhibition opens dedicated to the life and prolific career of the late Brazilian Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Paulo Mendes da Rocha. A founding member of the center who passed away in 2021, Mendes da Rocha left an indelible mark on modern architecture, particularly through his bold use of reinforced concrete and his profound engagement with the South American landscape.
Curated by renowned scholars Jean-Louis Cohen and Vanessa Grossman, the expansive exhibition spans seven decades of architectural production, offering visitors an unprecedented look into the mind of a master builder. The presentation includes a special project contributed by fellow architects Eduardo Souto de Moura and Nuno Graça Moura. To further enrich the visitor experience, the main presentation is partnered with a smaller, more intimate exhibition hosted in a nearby gallery. Together, these displays are complemented by a robust public program featuring debates, conferences, and site visits designed to contextualize Mendes da Rocha’s enduring influence on global design.
Web(s) of Life
London — Through September 10, 2023
In the heart of London, the Serpentine Galleries are presenting the first major UK solo exhibition of work by Argentinian multimedia artist Tomás Saraceno. Entitled Web(s) of Life, the summer exhibition draws deeply on Saraceno’s ongoing, multidisciplinary research into spiders, examining their intricate behaviors, the complex architecture of their webs, and their profound significance within human mythology and cultural perception.
Composed of a dynamic array of physical artworks, immersive video installations, and interactive elements that extend far beyond the gallery walls and onto the Serpentine’s outside grounds, the exhibition bridges art, science, and ecology. Furthermore, the presentation serves as a platform in partnership with two of Saraceno’s broader initiatives: Arachnophilia, described as an interdisciplinary and research-driven community of humans, spiders, and webs, and the environmental activist collective Aerocene. Through these collaborations, the exhibition urges viewers to reconsider humanity’s interconnectedness with the natural world and the delicate ecological networks that sustain life.
Ongoing Exhibitions
Shared Space—Collective Practices
Ghent, New York — Through June 11, 2023
Nestled within the 120-acre sculpture and architecture park at Art Omi in Ghent, New York, a timely exhibition highlights the power of collaborative design in addressing contemporary urban and social challenges. Shared Space—Collective Practices showcases the innovative work of four distinct international collaborative design practices: WIP, FUNdaMENTAL Design Build Initiative, Colloqate Design, and Assemble.
The featured projects place a profound emphasis on a community-centered approach to shaping and reclaiming public space. Rather than focusing solely on aesthetic achievements, the works directly confront pressing social concerns such as gentrification, privatization, urban neglect, and systemic social inequity. By foregrounding the voices of marginalized communities and demonstrating how design can serve as an instrument for social justice, the exhibition provides a vital platform for alternative models of architectural production.
Beauty in Enormous Bleakness: The Design Legacy of the Interned Generation of Japanese Americans
St. Louis — Through July 9, 2023
In the wake of World War II, Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) distinguished itself as the only school of architecture in the United States that permitted students of Japanese heritage to enroll. A deeply moving exhibition currently on view at WUSTL’s Thomas Gallery explores the remarkable work and enduring impact of Japanese-American architects who survived the harrowing experiences of the wartime internment camps.
The exhibition centers on the journeys of four architects who studied at the university following their release from West Coast exclusion zones: Gyo Obata, Richard Henmi, George Matsumoto, and Fred Toguchi. Notably, Obata and Henmi chose to settle permanently in St. Louis, where they went on to lead highly influential firms, including HOK and Henmi & Associates. Through archival materials and built works, the exhibition investigates the complicated relationship between American architecture, immigration policies, systemic exclusion, and cultural identity during the 20th century. It underscores the unique dual burdens borne by these architects: enduring the lasting psychological and social effects of unconstitutionally imposed detention, while simultaneously making foundational contributions to the modernist project, navigating pressures to assimilate, and actively participating in Japanese-American cultural and political advocacy.
Seeking Zohn
Los Angeles — Through July 23, 2023
The MAK Center for Art and Architecture is currently hosting the first Los Angeles exhibition dedicated to the life and work of architect and engineer Alejandro Zohn (1930–2000). Staged at the historic Schindler House in West Hollywood, Seeking Zohn brings visibility to a visionary practitioner who remains relatively little known outside of his adopted home of Mexico, despite having built extensively throughout Guadalajara from the 1950s through the 1990s.
Zohn was a Jewish émigré whose family fled Nazi-occupied Austria for Mexico during the Second World War. The exhibition captures his unique transnational perspective through newly commissioned photography and video works by contemporary artists Adam Wiseman, Lake Verea, Onus Luque, Sonia Madrigal, and Zara Pfeifer. These visual interpretations are displayed alongside select items drawn directly from the architect’s personal archives, offering visitors a comprehensive look at how a refugee-turned-architect shaped the built fabric of mid-century Guadalajara.
Norman Foster
Paris — Through August 7, 2023
In Paris, the Centre Pompidou is currently presenting the most extensive retrospective ever mounted on the prolific, six-decade career of renowned British architect and Pritzker laureate Norman Foster. Occupying a significant footprint within the iconic museum, the landmark exhibition brings together an extraordinary collection of original drawings, detailed workbooks, and precise physical prototypes representing nearly 100 projects from across Foster’s long career.
Spanning decades of groundbreaking innovation in high-tech architecture and sustainable design, the featured projects include the Carré d’Art in Nîmes, France, completed in 1993; the monumental Hong Kong International Airport, opened in 1998; and the futuristic Apple Park in Cupertino, California, finalized in 2017. The retrospective offers a rare glimpse into the rigorous design processes, technological experimentation, and visionary thinking that have cemented Foster’s status as a towering figure in contemporary global architecture.
Yasmeen Lari: Architecture for the Future
Vienna — Through August 16, 2023
At Austria’s national architecture museum, the Architekturzentrum Wien, visitors can experience the first comprehensive monographic exhibition dedicated to Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan’s first female architect and the recent recipient of the prestigious RIBA Royal Gold Medal. Born in 1941, Lari established her own architectural practice in 1961, initially launching her career as a pioneer of Brutalism. During this early phase, she designed striking modernist projects catering to Pakistan’s burgeoning middle class.
However, in 1980, Lari shifted the trajectory of her professional life by co-founding the humanitarian organization Heritage Foundation of Pakistan. In the decades since, and particularly following the devastating 2005 earthquake, she has spearheaded a zero-carbon, self-build movement aimed at empowering climate refugees and landless populations. Utilizing traditional construction technologies alongside low-cost, low-carbon materials, Lari and her collaborators have successfully facilitated the construction of tens of thousands of resilient homes across Pakistan, establishing a global benchmark for humanitarian architecture and sustainable community development.
1980 in Parallax
London — Through December 22, 2023
In 1978, architectural theorist Charles Jencks, a foundational figure in the conceptualization of Postmodernism, purchased a four-story, stucco-fronted Victorian townhouse in the Holland Park neighborhood of west London alongside his wife, artist and garden designer Maggie Keswick. Over the next five years, Jencks, Keswick, and architect Terry Farrell meticulously transformed the interior of the residence into what Jencks termed a "built manifesto" of Postmodern architectural theory. Following Jencks’s death, the property—now known as "The Cosmic House"—reopened to the public in 2021 as a dynamic exhibition space managed by the Jencks Foundation.
The foundation’s latest exhibition uses this iconic architectural canvas to launch a broader re-examination of the year 1980 as the true inception of the Postmodern canon. Anchored by a newly commissioned film created by the Raqs Media Collective entitled The Bicyclist Who Fell into a Time Cone, the exhibition also features site-specific wall drawings and three augmented-reality "interferences" that weave seamlessly across all four levels of The Cosmic House, engaging visitors in a dialogue between historic theory and cutting-edge digital interpretation.
Events
Venice Architecture Biennale 2023
Venice — May 20–November 26, 2023
The architectural world has turned its attention to Italy for the 18th International Exhibition of Architecture at the Venice Biennale. Curated by Scottish-Ghanaian architect Lesley Lokko—who founded the Graduate School of Architecture in Johannesburg in 2015 and the African Futures Institute in Accra, Ghana, in 2020—this year’s edition is titled "Laboratory of the Future."
Centering discussions around decarbonization and decolonization, Lokko has curated a citywide exhibition featuring contributions by 89 invited participants. Notably, over half of this year’s participants hail from Africa or the African diaspora, signaling a historic shift toward amplifying voices, perspectives, and spatial practices from regions that have historically been underrepresented in mainstream architectural discourse.
BQE 2053: Towards a Decarbonized Sustainable Multi-Modal Transportation Network
New York — May 20, 2023
Responding to the newly available federal funding streams dedicated to vital infrastructure repair, the Institute for Public Architecture is convening a free, one-day symposium in New York to address the future of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE). Having suffered from decades of deferred maintenance, the aging highway has become a focal point for discussions regarding urban renewal and environmental justice.
Hosted at the Harbor School on Governors Island, the symposium brings together experts, policymakers, and dedicated community members from Brooklyn and Queens to participate in four diverse panels. Discussions will explore critical topics including the potential removal of sections of the highway, the implementation of alternative multi-modal transportation systems, the establishment of community land trusts, and visionary, community-led blueprints for the future of the urban corridor.
NeoCon
Chicago — June 12–14, 2023
As one of the commercial design industry’s most enduring annual gatherings, NeoCon returns to Chicago, where it has been held continuously since 1969. The major trade show brings together commercial interior designers, architects, manufacturers, and industry professionals to experience the latest product innovations and technological advancements in workplace, healthcare, education, and hospitality design. This year’s sprawling event encompasses nearly one million square feet of exhibition space, showcasing over 400 product lines from both globally recognized industry leaders and boundary-pushing emerging designers.
Competitions
Architecture at Zero 2023
Deadline: June 15, 2023
Presented in part by AIA California, the Architecture at Zero 2023 competition is inviting forward-thinking design proposals for a new agricultural center in Allensworth, California. Historically significant as the first town in the state to be founded, financed, and governed entirely by African Americans, Allensworth serves as a powerful backdrop for a design brief centered on decarbonization, social equity, and environmental resilience.
The competition challenges both students and practicing professionals to submit proposals that honor the historical legacy of the site while actively advancing its modern aspirations to become a thriving regional destination for sustainable agriculture and Black history. Through these innovative design interventions, the competition seeks to demonstrate how architecture can actively support community empowerment and ecological stewardship.
