As the architecture and design community continues to navigate a rapidly evolving global landscape, cultural institutions, galleries, and public spaces around the world are hosting a diverse array of exhibitions, events, and competitions. From examining the intersections of race and diaspora in public parks to exploring the frontiers of artificial intelligence and virtual reality in architecture, contemporary programming highlights how designers are engaging with urgent social, political, and technological questions.
Architectural Record’s compilation of upcoming and ongoing initiatives captures this vibrant international dialogue, showcasing everything from avant-garde retrospectives and furniture design histories to experimental public spaces and urban interventions.
Upcoming Exhibitions
Pamphlet Architecture 37: Visions and Experiments in Architecture
Rhinebeck, New York — September 4 to October 17, 2022
Founded in 1978 by visionary architect Stephen Holl, Pamphlet Architecture established itself as a critical experimental publication designed to champion the bold, unbuilt, and forward-thinking work of emerging architects. Historically, the publication served as an early platform for luminaries who would go on to shape the built environment, including Zaha Hadid, Lars Lerup, and Mark Mack.
To celebrate its 37th issue and more than four decades of continuous production, T–Space Gallery in Rhinebeck, New York, is mounting a special exhibition showcasing the five finalists from the publication’s 2021 open call. Titled "Visions and Experiments in Architecture," the call challenged applicants to imagine entirely new architectural paradigms suited for a modern social and political consciousness. Beyond highlighting the fresh perspectives of the finalists, the exhibition will feature a comprehensive historical overview honoring the legacy of publisher Kevin Lippert, who passed away in the spring of 2022.
Ongoing Exhibitions
Chairs. Dieckmann!
Berlin — Through August 14, 2022
At the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin, visitors have a rare opportunity to engage with the profound contributions of furniture designer Erich Dieckmann (1896–1944). Dieckmann taught at both the Bauhaus and the influential arts-and-crafts school at Burg Giebichenstein in Halle, Saale, leaving an indelible mark on 20th-century design. Marking the first major solo exhibition dedicated to his work in over three decades, the Berlin presentation brings together original designs, meticulous drawings, and 120 pieces of furniture drawn directly from archival collections. The exhibition underscores Dieckmann’s mastery of typology, standardized construction, and functionalism during a turbulent era in European design history.
Meta-Horizons: The Future Now
Seoul — Through September 18, 2022
Following the high-profile unveiling of their virtual metaverse city, Liberland, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) is deepening its exploration of digital realms with a major new exhibition in Seoul. Hosted at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) museum—a landmark building famously designed by the firm and completed in 2014—the exhibition investigates the expansive potential of advanced architectural technologies. By showcasing how virtual reality, artificial intelligence-based design, and immersive digital environments are integrated into ZHA’s contemporary portfolio, the show offers a glimpse into the future of spatial practice. The presentation is further enriched by site-specific digital installations created by renowned new media artist Refik An
adol, expanding the dialogue between physical structures and virtual realms.
Justice is Beauty: The Work of MASS Design Group
Washington, D.C. — Through September 30, 2022
The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., is currently presenting an extensive look at the philosophy and portfolio of MASS Design Group, an advocacy-driven architecture practice known for prioritizing human dignity and collective health in the built environment. The exhibition features a comprehensive collection of research initiatives, unbuilt proposals, and realized buildings centered on the architecture of health.
Running concurrently is The Gun Violence Memorial Project, a poignant collaborative installation by artist Hank Willis Thomas and the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. The memorial consists of four distinct glass-brick "houses" filled with personal mementos contributed by families who have lost loved ones to gun violence. By intertwining architecture, public memory, and social justice, the exhibition demonstrates how spatial design can serve as a vessel for mourning, healing, and public advocacy.
Missing Link: Strategies of a Viennese Architecture Group (1970–1980)
Vienna — Through October 2, 2022
Offering the first comprehensive retrospective of its kind, the MAK Exhibition Hall in Vienna is shining a light on the avant-garde architecture collective Missing Link. Founded in 1970 by Angela Hareiter, Otto Kapfinger, and Adolf Krischanitz, the group operated largely outside traditional academic and professional boundaries, choosing instead to interrogate the discipline through radical, interdisciplinary lenses. Their diverse body of work ranged from utopian, conceptual proposals for collective living arrangements to rigorous sociological and urban research studies examining the complex networks of Vienna. The exhibition provides contemporary audiences with a vital look at 1970s European radical architecture and its ongoing relevance to urban theory.
The Garden of Privatised Delights
London — Through October 15, 2022
Originally commissioned by the British Council for the prestigious Venice Architecture Biennale and curated by Unscene Architecture, The Garden of Privatised Delights has found a home in London at the Building Centre. The exhibition tackles the contentious issue of privately owned public spaces (POPS) across the United Kingdom, issuing a call to action for innovative approaches that reconcile commercial private interests with the needs of the public good. To explore these themes, a collective of prominent British architecture practices—including the Decorators, Studio Polpo, and vPPR Architects—have developed seven imaginative, inclusive, and community-oriented reimaginings of privatized urban zones, provoking critical discussions about urban equity and civic access.
Black Atlantic
New York City — Through November 27, 2022
Distributed throughout Brooklyn Bridge Park—a site historically functioning as a bustling maritime harbor linking the Americas to Europe and Africa—the Public Art Fund’s Black Atlantic exhibition brings together powerful site-specific installations by contemporary artists Hugh Hayden, Leilah Babirye, Dozie Kanu, Tau Lewis, and Kiyan Williams. Taking its conceptual title from Paul Gilroy’s influential 1993 book, the exhibition explores the profound historical and cultural impacts of transatlantic networks on the African diaspora. Through large-scale fabrications, the participating artists weave together sweeping global histories with intimate personal identities, transforming the waterfront park into an open-air gallery of reflection and cultural celebration.
Events
Concéntrico 08
Logroño, Spain — September 1 to 6, 2022
Also widely recognized as the Logroño International Festival of Architecture and Design, the annual Concéntrico festival turns its attention squarely toward the urban environment and the civic value of shared public spaces. For its eighth iteration, a series of large-scale temporary installations created by winning international architecture teams—including AAA, Ander López, and Collective X—have been strategically placed throughout the historic Spanish city. These interventions are accompanied by a robust schedule of public exhibitions and panel discussions. Together, they explore contemporary community dynamics with a particular emphasis on sustainable materials, circular economies, and collaborative construction processes.
Competitions
Miami Floating Housing
Deadline: November 9, 2022
In the realm of design competitions, the University of Kent is hosting a global challenge focused on the pressing intersection of ecological resilience and alternative urban habitation. Building upon the academic work of the university’s Architecture Visualization program, the initiative invites designers and visionaries to explore the material, environmental, and social values of innovative housing typologies designed for aquatic urban environments. Alongside the competition, related academic presentations are slated to highlight innovative preservation projects and novel methodologies for working with vulnerable coastal heritage sites facing the realities of a changing climate.
