RECORD’s monthly roundup highlights the most anticipated upcoming and ongoing exhibitions, major design festivals, and key competitions shaping the built environment around the world.
Upcoming Exhibitions
As the spring and summer seasons unfold, cultural institutions and design hubs globally are launching major retrospectives and forward-looking thematic exhibitions. Among the most anticipated is More with Less: Reimagining Architecture for a Changing World, running from April 22 through September 10, 2023, in Newcastle, England. Housed in a former 19th-century department store, the Farrell Centre serves as a new public exhibition space and research hub dedicated to architecture and urbanism under the leadership of British architect Sir Terry Farrell. For its inaugural exhibition, the center invited four distinct architectural practices—Dress for the Weather, McCloy + Muchemwa, Office S&M, and the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment—to develop installations that propose novel design solutions in response to the ongoing climate emergency.
In Paris, the Centre Pompidou is presenting the largest retrospective to date dedicated to the prolific career of Pritzker Prize laureate Norman Foster. Running from May 10 to August 7, 2023, the comprehensive exhibition occupies 23,000 square feet and features drawings, workbooks, and physical prototypes spanning nearly 100 projects over the past six decades. Highlights from the retrospective include significant works such as the Carré d’Art in Nîmes, France (1993), the Hong Kong International Airport (1998), and Apple Park in Cupertino, California (2017).
Ongoing Exhibitions
Visitors exploring institutions worldwide can also experience a diverse array of ongoing retrospectives and thematic showcases exploring structural engineering, digital futures, and historical design movements.
At the Museo Nazionale MAXXI in Rome, Technoscape: The Architecture of Engineers—on view through April 16, 2023—explores the intricate relationship between structural engineering, ranging from vernacular traditions to avant-garde innovations, and the integration of technology into modern living and working environments. Developed in collaboration with universities and research centers, the exhibition’s first section features interactive installations and pavilions that demonstrate how scientific and technological sectors intersect with contemporary architecture, from smart city management devices to the revival of low-tech, vintage assembly techniques. The second section examines the work of structural engineers from the post-war era to the present day, highlighting iconic buildings such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Sydney Opera House.
In New York City, Italian architect and radical design studio Archizoom co-founder Andrea Branzi is presenting his third solo exhibition at the Friedman Benda Gallery in Chelsea. The showcase highlights three distinct bodies of work titled Roots, Germinal Seats, and Buildings, which place a strong emphasis on natural and repurposed materials utilized in everyday household objects, including chairs, cabinets, and lamps.
Meanwhile, at the Museum of Architectural Drawing, the exhibition Aldo Rossi. Insulae displays more than 110 works by the late Italian architect, many of which are being presented to the public for the first time. Divided into three sections—Corpus Mediolanensis, Works for Berlin, and Insula—the exhibition derives its title from the latter series, which features a collection of drawings by Rossi inspired by architectural models from antiquity.
In Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago is hosting the first U.S. solo exhibition for artist Himali Singh Soin. Titled Static Range and running through May 15, 2023, the multimedia exhibition offers an immersive exploration of the history and future of nuclear landscapes. Designed in close collaboration with local architecture firm Future Firm, the installation incorporates poetry, music, video, textiles, ceramics, drawings, and a therapeutic garden.
In New Haven, the Yale Architecture Gallery is presenting François Dallegret: Beyond the Bubble through May 22, 2023. Building upon the 2011 exhibition GOD & CO: Beyond the Bubble, the showcase highlights drawings, objects, films, and archival ephemera documenting six decades of practice by Montreal-based architect François Dallegret, a central figure of the 1960s and 1970s architectural avant-garde known for his meticulous designs of futuristic spaces and objects.
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, the large-scale exhibition brings together nearly 250 works created by American and Canadian women from the mid-19th century to the present. Displayed against the backdrop of the social and political movements that have shaped women’s careers over the past 150 years, the works span artisanal craft and industrial design, encompassing ceramics, glass, metalwork, jewelry, textiles, furniture, consumer products, graphics, fashion, and interior design.
In Berlin, the Museum of Decorative Arts is exploring the extensive body of work produced by architects and designers in the former Eastern Bloc during the Cold War through Retrotopia: Design for Socialist Spaces, on view through July 16, 2023. By displaying both realized and conceptual spaces imagined by creators from behind the Iron Curtain, the exhibition sheds light on figures who remain relatively unknown in the Western world, including Czech architect Věra Machoninová, Estonian designers Sirje Runge and Bruno Tomberg, and German architect Lutz Brandt.
In London, the Roca London Gallery is presenting Vanishing Points: Architectural Imagination in the Digital Universe through July 29, 2023. Curated by architect Hamza Shaikh, the exhibition juxtaposes contemporary virtual architectural imaginations with historical precedents drawn from the Drawing Matter archive. By displaying works by Mies vanther Rohe, John Hejduk, and Le Corbusier alongside cutting-edge virtual technologies, the exhibit demonstrates how digital architecture builds upon and expands the profession’s rich drawing tradition.
In Germany, the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein is presenting Garden Futures: Designing with Nature through October 3, 2023. Designed by the Milan-based studio Formafantasma, the exhibition examines the history and future of the modern garden, framing horticulture as a potentially radical medium for experimentation and urban incubation. Encompassing contemporary community gardens, green facades, and vertical urban farms, the showcase features contributions by landscape architects Roberto Burle Marx and Mien Ruys, alongside artist Derek Jarman.
Events
The spring and summer calendar also features a series of prominent international design festivals, symposia, and biennials celebrating public spaces, commercial innovations, and future urban strategies.
In Logroño, Spain, the architecture and design festival Concentric 09 returns for its ninth edition from April 27 to May 2, 2023. The six-day event features a robust roster of public installations, exhibitions, and events throughout the city, highlighting design concepts and proposals that celebrate the public realm and civic life.
In New York City, the annual NYCxDesign festival returns for its 11th year from May 18 to 25, 2023, drawing more than 300,000 visitors to explore a diverse program of talks, exhibitions, installations, and walking tours across the boroughs.
In Italy, the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia opens on May 20 and runs through November 26, 2023. Curated by Scottish-Ghanaian architect Lesley Lokko—founder of the Graduate School of Architecture in Johannesburg and the African Futures Institute in Accra—this year’s edition is themed "Laboratory of the Future." The citywide exhibition features contributions from 89 participants, with more than half hailing from Africa or the African diaspora.
Addressing pressing urban infrastructure challenges, the Institute for Public Architecture is hosting a free one-day symposium in New York on May 20, 2023, titled BQE 2053: Towards a Decarbonized Sustainable Multi-Modal Transportation Network. Taking advantage of newly available federal infrastructure funding, four expert panels will convene at the Harbor School on Governors Island to discuss reuse opportunities, highway removal, alternative transportation systems, and community land trusts for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, which has deteriorated following decades of deferred maintenance.
In Chicago, the commercial interior design industry will gather for NeoCon from June 12 to 14, 2023. Established in 1969, the annual trade fair will span nearly one million square feet of exhibition space, showcasing innovations from more than 400 leading companies and emerging designers alike.
Competitions
Organizations and institutions continue to invite forward-thinking design proposals to address pressing environmental and social issues. The Architecture at Zero 2023 competition, presented in part by AIA California, is currently accepting entries through June 15, 2023. The competition invites students and professionals to submit design proposals for an agricultural center in Allensworth, California—the first town in the state to be founded, financed, and governed by African Americans. Emphasizing decarbonization, equity, and resilience, the brief seeks designs that honor and advance the site’s ongoing aspiration to serve as a hub for sustainable agriculture and Black history.
