As the architectural world enters a dynamic new season, a comprehensive lineup of upcoming and ongoing exhibitions, international festivals, and design competitions is capturing the profession’s most pressing themes. From major retrospectives celebrating twentieth-century masters to urgent explorations of climate resilience, material reuse, and social equity, this month’s cultural offerings reflect a discipline deeply engaged with the transformation of our built and natural environments.
Upcoming Exhibitions
In Newcastle, England, the newly established Farrell Centre is opening its doors with an inaugural exhibition that speaks directly to the contemporary climate emergency. Led by British architect Sir Terry Farrell, the centre functions as a public exhibition space and research hub dedicated to architecture and urbanism, housed appropriately within a former nineteenth-century department store. For its premier exhibition, titled More with Less: Reimagining Architecture for a Changing World, the institution invited four distinct architectural practices—Dress for the Weather, McCloy + Muchemwa, Office S&M, and the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment—to conceive site-specific installations. Running from April 22 through September 10, 2023, the exhibition challenges designers to propose radical new spatial responses to the ecological crisis.
Meanwhile, in Paris, the Centre Pompidou is launching the largest retrospective ever mounted to celebrate the prolific career of Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Lord Norman Foster. Spanning a vast 23,000 square feet, the monumental exhibition opens on May 10 and runs through August 7, 2023. It offers an unprecedented deep dive into the architect’s six-decade career through original drawings, workbooks, and detailed prototypes encompassing nearly 100 projects. Visitors will have the opportunity to examine the evolution of iconic works such as the Carré d’Art in Nîmes, France, completed in 1993; the sprawling Hong Kong International Airport, opened in 1998; and the futuristic Apple Park in Cupertino, California, finalized in 2017.
Ongoing Exhibitions
Across Europe and North America, a series of compelling ongoing exhibitions continue to draw design professionals and the public alike. In Rome, the Museo Nazionale MAXXI is hosting Technoscape: The Architecture of Engineers through April 16, 2023. The exhibition investigates the complex interplay between structural engineering—spanning both vernacular traditions and avant-garde innovations—and the pervasive integration of technology into modern living and working spaces. Developed in partnership with various universities and research centers, the first section of the show features immersive installations and interactive pavilions. These displays allow visitors to experience how contemporary scientific and technological sectors intersect with architecture, ranging from smart urban management devices to the revival of low-tech, vintage assembly techniques. The second section traces the trajectory of structural engineering from the post-World War II era to the present day, spotlighting legendary landmarks such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Sydney Opera House.
In New York City, Italian architect Andrea Branzi—renowned for cofounding the radical design studio Archizoom during the turbulent 1960s—is presenting his third solo exhibition with the Friedman Benda Gallery in Chelsea. The showcase features three distinct bodies of work titled Roots, Germinal Seats, and Buildings. Together, these pieces place a profound emphasis on natural and repurposed materials, transforming them into everyday household objects including chairs, cabinets, and lamps.
Simultaneously, the Museum of Architectural Drawing is hosting Aldo Rossi. Insulae, an exhibition dedicated to the late Italian master. Displaying over 110 works, many of which are being exhibited publicly for the very first time, the show is organized into three distinct sections: Corpus Mediolanensis, Works for Berlin, and Insula. The latter series, which lends its name to the exhibition, comprises a striking collection of drawings inspired by classical architectural models from antiquity.
In Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago is currently staging the first U.S. solo exhibition for artist Himali Singh Soin. Titled Static Range, the immersive multimedia presentation explores the shadowed history and speculative futures of nuclear landscapes. Running through May 15, 2023, the exhibition weaves together poetry, music, video, textiles, ceramics, drawings, and a specially designed therapeutic garden. The spatial layout was developed in close collaboration with the local architecture practice Future Firm.
Moving to New Haven, Connecticut, the Yale Architecture Gallery is presenting François Dallegret: Beyond the Bubble through May 22, 2023. The exhibition honors the Montreal-based architect, a prominent figure of the 1960s and 1970s architectural avant-garde celebrated for his meticulous, imaginative designs for futuristic objects and spaces. Expanding upon the 2011 exhibition GOD & CO: Beyond the Bubble, the current retrospective brings together drawings, physical objects, films, and historical ephemera spanning six decades of Dallegret’s career.
In Montreal, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is staging Parall(elles): A History of Women in Design through May 28, 2023. Organized in collaboration with the Stewart Program for Modern Design, this landmark exhibition gathers approximately 250 works created by Canadian and American women from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. The works are contextualized against the social, cultural, and political forces that have shaped women’s design careers over the past century and a half. The expansive survey encompasses everything from artisanal craft to industrial design, including ceramics, glass, metalwork, jewelry, textiles, furniture, consumer products, graphics, fashion, and interior environments.
In Berlin, the Museum of Decorative Arts is exploring the rich design heritage of the former Eastern Bloc during the Cold War through its exhibition Retrotopia: Design for Socialist Spaces, running through July 16, 2023. The show highlights both realized and unbuilt conceptual environments imagined by architects and designers operating behind the Iron Curtain. By doing so, it brings long-overdue visibility to figures who remain relatively unknown in the Western world, such as Czech architect Věra Machoninová, Estonian designers Sirje Runge and Bruno Tomberg, and German architect Lutz Brandt.
In London, the Roca London Gallery is hosting Vanishing Points: Architectural Imagination in the Digital Universe through July 29, 2023. Curated by architect Hamza Shaikh, the exhibition juxtaposes contemporary digital architectural explorations with historical precedents drawn from the renowned Drawing Matter archive. By displaying rare drawings by architectural luminaries such as Mies van der Rohe, John Hejduk, and Le Corbusier directly alongside products of cutting-edge virtual technologies, the exhibit demonstrates how digital architecture continues and expands upon the rich lineage of the profession’s drawing tradition.
Rounding out the current museum offerings, the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, is presenting Garden Futures: Designing with Nature through October 3, 2023. Designed by the Milan-based studio Formafantasma, the exhibition examines the historical evolution and future potential of the modern garden, framing horticulture as a vital medium for radical spatial experimentation and environmental incubation. Encompassing contemporary community gardens, green facades, and vertical urban farms, the comprehensive survey features historical and contemporary contributions by landscape architects Roberto Burle Marx and Mien Ruys, alongside artist Derek Jarman.
Events
The spring and summer calendar also features a vibrant array of international festivals and symposia dedicated to civic engagement and design innovation. In Logroño, Spain, the annual architecture and design festival Concéntrico 09 returns for its ninth edition from April 27 to May 2, 2023. The six-day event animates the city with a diverse lineup of temporary pavilions, installations, exhibitions, and public programs that celebrate the public realm and everyday civic life.
In New York City, the annual NYCxDesign festival returns for its eleventh year from May 18 to 25, 2023. Drawing over 300,000 visitors to the city, the multi-day celebration offers a rich schedule of public talks, exhibitions, site-specific installations, and neighborhood walking tours that highlight the breadth of contemporary design culture.
In Italy, the eagerly anticipated 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia opens on May 20 and runs through November 26, 2023. This year’s edition is 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. Operating under the overarching theme "Laboratory of the Future," the citywide exhibition features contributions from 89 official participants, with more than half hailing from Africa or the African diaspora.
Also in New York, capitalizing on newly available federal infrastructure funding, the Institute for Public Architecture is hosting a free, one-day symposium on May 20, 2023, titled BQE 2053: Towards a Decarbonized Sustainable Multi-Modal Transportation Network. Convening at the Harbor School on Governors Island, the event will feature four expert-led panels addressing the future of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, which has suffered from decades of deferred maintenance. Policymakers, urban planners, and community members from Brooklyn and Queens will discuss potential highway removal, alternative transportation models, community land trusts, and grassroots visions for the corridor’s future.
In Chicago, the commercial design industry will gather for NeoCon, the annual trade fair running from June 12 to 14, 2023. Having anchored the city’s design scene since 1969, the fair will once again fill nearly one million square feet of exhibition space with innovative products from over 400 leading manufacturers and emerging designers alike.
Competitions
As designers look toward sustainable futures, the open call for the Architecture at Zero 2023 competition presents a compelling challenge. Presented in part by AIA California, the competition invites students and professionals to submit design proposals for an agricultural center in Allensworth, California—the historic first town in the state to be independently founded, financed, and governed by African Americans. Emphasizing core principles of decarbonization, environmental equity, and resilience, the competition brief seeks architectural visions that honor and advance the community’s legacy as a future destination for sustainable agriculture and Black history. The submission deadline is June 15, 2023.
