As the architectural world navigates an era defined by rapid technological transformation, the imperative of climate resilience, and a critical reevaluation of historical narratives, cultural institutions around the globe are rolling out an ambitious lineup of programming. RECORD’s monthly curation of upcoming and ongoing exhibitions, major international events, and high-stakes competitions highlights the diverse ways architects, designers, and engineers are engaging with the built environment. From massive retrospectives of Pritzker laureates to radical community-driven design festivals, this season offers a comprehensive look at the forces shaping architecture today.
Upcoming Exhibitions
More with Less: Reimagining Architecture for a Changing World
Newcastle, England
April 22–September 10, 2023
In Newcastle, England, a former 19th-century department store has been transformed into the Farrell Centre, a vibrant new public exhibition space and research hub dedicated entirely to architecture and urbanism. Led by renowned British architect Sir Terry Farrell, the institution is opening its doors with an inaugural exhibition that directly confronts the realities of our current environmental crisis. Titled More with Less: Reimagining Architecture for a Changing World, the exhibition challenges four distinct architectural practices—Dress for the Weather, McCloy + Muchemwa, Office S&M, and the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment—to conceive and construct site-specific installations. These works propose radical new design responses to the climate emergency, testing the limits of sustainable materials, biological integration, and spatial efficiency.
Norman Foster
Paris
May 10–August 7, 2023
Across the English Channel, the Centre Pompidou in Paris is preparing to host the largest retrospective ever mounted to celebrate the prolific career of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster. Spanning an impressive 23,000 square feet, the monumental exhibition will offer visitors an intimate glimpse into the mind of one of high-tech architecture’s most influential figures. Curated to reflect six decades of architectural innovation, the display features original drawings, personal workbooks, and detailed physical prototypes for nearly 100 projects. Highlights range from early milestones like the Carré d’Art in Nîmes, France, completed in 1993, and the expansive Hong Kong International Airport, opened in 1998, to more recent technological feats such as Apple Park in Cupertino, California, finished in 2017.
Ongoing Exhibitions
Technoscape: The Architecture of Engineers
Rome
Through April 16, 2023
At the Museo Nazionale MAXXI in Rome, visitors have been engaging with a deep exploration of the intersection between structural engineering and the ubiquity of modern technology. Technoscape: The Architecture of Engineers examines both vernacular and avant-garde structural feats against the backdrop of an increasingly digitized built environment. Developed in close collaboration with academic institutions and research centers, the exhibition is divided into two compelling sections. The first utilizes interactive pavilions and immersive installations to illustrate how contemporary scientific and technological sectors intersect with architecture, tracking everything from smart city management systems to the deliberate revival of vintage, low-tech assembly techniques. The second section traces the evolution of structural engineering from the post-war era to the present day, celebrating monumental achievements that redefined modern cities, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Sydney Opera House.
Andrea Branzi: Contemporary DNA
New York
Through April 2023
In the Chelsea neighborhood of New York, Italian architect Andrea Branzi—who famously cofounded the radical design studio Archizoom in the 1960s—is mounting his third solo exhibition with the Friedman Benda Gallery. Titled Contemporary DNA, the showcase brings together three distinct new bodies of work: Roots, Germinal Seats, and Buildings. Across these collections, Branzi emphasizes the integration of natural elements and reused materials into everyday household objects, reinterpreting the form and function of chairs, cabinets, and lamps through a critical, conceptual lens that questions the consumerist trajectory of modern interior design.
Aldo Rossi. Insulae
Berlin
Through April/May 2023
Meanwhile, the Museum of Architectural Drawing in Berlin is currently hosting Aldo Rossi. Insulae, an exhibition showcasing more than 110 works by the late Italian architect and theorist, a significant portion of which are being exhibited publicly for the very first time. The thoughtfully curated show is split into three thematic sections: Corpus Mediolanensis, Works for Berlin, and the titular Insula. This final series features a mesmerizing collection of drawings by Rossi that draw direct inspiration from architectural models and typologies of classical antiquity, offering profound insight into his theoretical framework regarding the permanence of urban forms.
Himali Singh Soin: Static Range
Chicago
Through May 15, 2023
In Chicago, the Art Institute is presenting the first U.S. solo exhibition by artist Himali Singh Soin. Titled Static Range, the multimedia installation offers an immersive, poetic imagining of the historical legacy and speculative futures of nuclear landscapes. Encompassing a rich sensory tapestry of poetry, original music, video works, textiles, ceramics, drawings, and an accompanying therapeutic garden, the physical environment of the exhibition was designed by the artist in close collaboration with the local architecture practice Future Firm, bridging contemporary art with spatial design.
François Dallegret: Beyond the Bubble
New Haven, Connecticut
Through May 22, 2023
At the Yale Architecture Gallery, the legacy of Montreal-based architect François Dallegret is receiving renewed attention. As a central figure of the architectural avant-garde during the 1960s and 1970s, Dallegret gained international renown for his meticulous, witty, and deeply futuristic designs for objects and spatial systems. Expanding upon the foundational 2011 exhibition GOD & CO: Beyond the Bubble, the current Yale presentation gathers an extensive archive of drawings, physical objects, films, and ephemeral materials documenting six decades of his unconventional practice.
Parall(elles): A History of Women in Design
Montreal
Through May 28, 2023
North of the border, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is staging a landmark, large-scale exhibition titled Parall(elles): A History of Women in Design. Organized in collaboration with the Stewart Program for Modern Design, the exhibition brings together nearly 250 works created by American and Canadian women designers from the mid-19th century to the present day. The works are contextualized against the shifting social, cultural, and political backdrops that have historically shaped the professional trajectories of women in the field. The diverse array of objects spans artisanal craft and industrial production, encompassing ceramics, glass, metalwork, jewelry, textiles, furniture, consumer electronics, graphic design, fashion, and interior environments.
Retrotopia: Design for Socialist Spaces
Berlin
Through July 16, 2023
Also in Berlin, the Museum of Decorative Arts is shedding light on a frequently overlooked chapter of design history with Retrotopia: Design for Socialist Spaces. The exhibition explores the vast and innovative body of work produced by architects and designers operating behind the Iron Curtain in the former Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. By displaying both built realities and visionary, unbuilt conceptual spaces, the museum introduces Western audiences to pioneering figures whose contributions have long been marginalized in standard design histories. Featured designers include the prominent Czech architect Věra Machoninová, Estonian designers Sirje Runge and Bruno Tomberg, and German architect Lutz Brandt.
Vanishing Points: Architectural Imagination in the Digital Universe
London
Through July 29, 2023
In London, the Roca London Gallery is examining the profound paradigm shift brought about by computer-generated design through the exhibition Vanishing Points: Architectural Imagination in the Digital Universe. Conceived by architect Hamza Shaikh, the showcase places contemporary digital architectural imaginings into direct dialogue with historical precedents drawn from the renowned Drawing Matter archive. By displaying rare historical drawings by masters such as Mies vander Rohe, John Hejduk, and Le Corbusier side-by-side with cutting-edge products of modern virtual reality and digital modeling, the exhibition demonstrates how contemporary digital architecture builds upon, honors, and radically expands the profession’s rich tradition of hand-drawing.
Garden Futures: Designing with Nature
Weil am Rhein, Germany
Through October 3, 2023
At the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, an exhibition designed by the Milan-based studio Formafantasma is exploring the historical evolution and critical future of the modern garden. Titled Garden Futures: Designing with Nature, the exhibition posits that horticulture is far more than a decorative pastime, framing it instead as a potentially radical site for ecological experimentation and social incubation. Ranging from contemporary community gardens and living green facades to high-tech vertical urban farms, the exhibition features historical and contemporary contributions from landscape visionaries such as Roberto Burle Marx and Mien Ruys, alongside multidisciplinary artists like Derek Jarman.
Events
Concéntrico 09
Logroño, Spain
April 27–May 2, 2023
As spring progresses into late April, the historic city of Logroño in northern Spain will host the ninth edition of Concéntrico, its annual international architecture and design festival. Over the course of six days, the city will transform into an open-air laboratory featuring temporary pavilions, installations, and exhibitions situated throughout the urban fabric. The festival invites international designers to submit and construct site-specific interventions that interrogate, celebrate, and reanimate the public realm and everyday civic life.
NYCxDesign
New York
May 18–25, 2023
In May, New York City will become the epicenter of the North American design community with the return of NYCxDesign for its 11th annual edition. Attracting upwards of 300,000 visitors from around the world, the weeklong festival features a diverse and packed roster of public talks, product exhibitions, immersive installations, and neighborhood walking tours that highlight the city’s vibrant creative ecosystem.
Venice Architecture Biennale 2023
Venice, Italy
May 20–November 26, 2023
One of the most anticipated events on the global cultural calendar, the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, opens in late May. This year’s edition is curated by Scottish-Ghanaian architect Lesley Lokko, founder of the Graduate School of Architecture in Johannesburg and the African Futures Institute in Accra, Ghana. Operating under the overarching and urgent theme “Laboratory of the Future,” the citywide exhibition features contributions from 89 official participants, with a historic milestone: over half of the invited practitioners hail from Africa or the African diaspora, ensuring a profound shift in perspective regarding global urbanization, decolonization, and material resource management.
BQE 2053: Towards a Decarbonized Sustainable Multi-Modal Transportation Network
New York
May 20, 2023
Amid historic opportunities presented by new federal funding streams allocated for infrastructure repair, the Institute for Public Architecture is convening a free, one-day symposium in New York to address the future of the decaying Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE). Plagued by decades of deferred maintenance, the highway is the focus of intense civic debate. Four distinct panels will gather at the Harbor School on Governors Island, bringing together urban planners, policy-makers, and community leaders from Brooklyn and Queens to debate critical strategies such as highway removal, the implementation of alternative multi-modal transportation systems, community land trusts, and grassroots visions for a decarbonized urban corridor.
NeoCon
Chicago
June 12–14, 2023
Rounding out the early summer event calendar is NeoCon, the premier annual commercial interiors trade show that has been held at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart since 1969. The massive industry gathering will draw thousands of design professionals to explore nearly one million square feet of exhibition space. Over 400 leading manufacturers and emerging designers will showcase the latest innovations in workplace, hospitality, healthcare, and educational interior environments.
Competitions
Architecture at Zero 2023
Deadline: June 15, 2023
For practitioners and students looking to make an immediate impact through design, the Architecture at Zero 2023 competition—presented in part by AIA California—is currently accepting submissions through June 15. The competition challenges entrants to conceptualize a comprehensive agricultural center in Allensworth, California, which holds historical significance as the first town in the state to be independently founded, financed, and governed by African Americans. Centering on core principles of decarbonization, social equity, and environmental resilience, the competition brief calls for visionary design proposals that honor the historic site while actively supporting its modern aspiration to evolve into a flourishing hub for sustainable agriculture and Black history.
