As the global architecture and design community navigates a rapidly shifting socio-political and ecological landscape, museums, cultural institutions, and festival organizers are rolling out an ambitious slate of exhibitions, international biennales, and design competitions. From major retrospectives celebrating master builders to radical explorations of climate change, digital design universes, and forgotten socialist spaces, the spring and summer of 2023 offer a profound look at how the built environment shapes and is shaped by society.
RECORD’s monthly curation of upcoming and ongoing global events highlights the most significant happenings across the architecture, urbanism, and design sectors.
Upcoming Exhibitions
Among the most anticipated new openings 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 operates as a public exhibition space and research hub dedicated to architecture and urbanism under the leadership of renowned British architect Sir Terry Farrell. For its inaugural exhibition, the center challenged four distinct architectural practices—Dress for the Weather, McCloy + Muchemwa, Office S&M, and the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment—to develop site-specific installations that propose innovative design responses to the ongoing climate emergency. These installations ask visitors to reconsider material consumption and ecological impact in contemporary building practices.
In Paris, the Centre Pompidou is hosting the largest retrospective ever dedicated to the prolific career of Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Lord Norman Foster. Running from May 10 to August 7, 2023, the comprehensive exhibition occupies 23,000 square feet and features an extensive collection of original drawings, workbooks, and physical prototypes. Spanning almost 100 projects from the past six decades, the showcase explores Foster’s monumental contributions to global architecture, including the Carré d’Art in Nîmes, France (1993), the Hong Kong International Airport (1998), and Apple Park in Cupertino, California (2017). The exhibition provides an unprecedented look into the evolution of one of high-tech architecture’s most influential practitioners.
Ongoing Exhibitions
In Rome, the Museo Nazionale MAXXI has been hosting "Technoscape: The Architecture of Engineers," which runs through April 16, 2023. The exhibition examines the complex and evolving relationship between structural engineering—spanning both vernacular traditions and avant-garde innovations—and the increasing integration of technology into daily living and working spaces. Developed in collaboration with various universities and research centers, the exhibition is divided into two distinct parts. The first section utilizes interactive installations and pavilions to demonstrate how scientific and technological sectors intersect with modern architecture, ranging from smart devices for urban management to the revival of low-tech, vintage assembly techniques. The second part traces the historical trajectory of structural engineering from the post-war era to the present day, celebrating iconic engineering feats such as the Centre Pompidou and the Sydney Opera House.
New York’s Chelsea district has also been a focal point for contemporary design through Andrea Branzi’s third solo exhibition at the Friedman Benda Gallery. The Italian architect, who famously cofounded the radical design studio Archizoom in the 1960s, presents three new bodies of work titled Roots, Germinal Seats, and Buildings. The collection heavily emphasizes natural and reused materials, translating them into everyday household objects such as chairs, cabinets, and lamps, thereby continuing Branzi’s lifelong exploration of radical and sustainable domestic spaces.
In Berlin, the Museum of Architectural Drawing is showcasing "Aldo Rossi. Insulae," an exhibition displaying over 110 works by the late Italian architect, many of which are being presented to the public for the first time. Curated into three sections—Corpus Mediolanensis, Works for Berlin, and Insula—the exhibition highlights Rossi’s profound theoretical engagement with architectural history. The final series, from which the exhibition takes its name, features a unique collection of drawings inspired directly by architectural models from antiquity.
Chicago audiences have had the opportunity to experience "Himali Singh Soin: Static Range" at the Art Institute of Chicago through May 15, 2023. Marking the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States, the multimedia installation offers an immersive conceptualization of the history and future of nuclear landscapes. Encompassing poetry, music, video, textiles, ceramics, drawings, and an integrated therapeutic garden, the project was developed in close collaboration with the local architecture practice Future Firm.
In New Haven, the Yale Architecture Gallery is presenting "François Dallegret: Beyond the Bubble" through May 22, 2023. The exhibition celebrates the Montreal-based architect, a central figure of the 1960s and 1970s architectural avant-garde renowned for his meticulous and imaginative designs for futuristic objects and spaces. Expanding upon the 2011 exhibition "GOD & CO: Beyond the Bubble," the Yale show features drawings, physical objects, films, and archival ephemera that capture six decades of Dallegret’s visionary practice.
Montreal’s cultural scene features "Parall(elles): A History of Women in Design" at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts through May 28, 2023. Organized in collaboration with the Stewart Program for Modern Design, the large-scale exhibition brings together nearly 250 works by American and Canadian women designers dating from the mid-19th century to the present day. Set against the historical backdrop of the shifting social and political forces that have influenced women’s careers over the past 150 years, the exhibits range from artisanal crafts to industrial design, including ceramics, glass, metalwork, jewelry, textiles, furniture, consumer products, graphic design, fashion, and interior environments.
In Berlin, the Museum of Decorative Arts is exploring the lesser-known architectural histories of the former Eastern Bloc through "Retrotopia: Design for Socialist Spaces," on view through July 16, 2023. The exhibition sheds light on the vast body of work produced by architects and designers behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. By displaying both realized and conceptual spaces, the exhibition introduces western audiences to influential yet marginalized figures, including Czech architect Věra Machoninová, Estonian designers Sirje Runge and Bruno Tomberg, and German architect Lutz Brandt.
London’s Roca London Gallery is hosting "Vanishing Points: Architectural Imagination in the Digital Universe" through July 29, 2023. Curated by architect Hamza Shaikh, the exhibition places contemporary digital architectural imaginings in direct dialogue with historical precedents drawn from the Drawing Matter archive. By displaying original drawings by modern masters such as Mies van der Rohe, John Hejduk, and Le Corbusier alongside cutting-edge virtual reality and digital design products, the exhibition illustrates how contemporary digital architecture continues and expands upon traditional drawing practices.
Rounding out the 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 history and evolution of the modern garden, framing horticulture as a vital medium for radical environmental experimentation. Covering everything from contemporary community gardens to vertical urban farms and green facades, the exhibition includes historical and contemporary work by landscape architects Roberto Burle Marx and Mien Ruys, alongside artist Derek Jarman.
Events and Festivals
The spring calendar is anchored by several major international design festivals and symposia. In Logroño, Spain, the Concentríco 09 architecture and design festival runs from April 27 to May 2, 2023. Marking its ninth edition, the six-day festival features a dynamic citywide roster of installations, pavilions, and events designed to provoke critical conversations about the public realm and civic life.
In New York, the annual NYCxDesign festival returns for its 11th year from May 18 to 25, 2023. The citywide celebration draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to explore a diverse program of design talks, exhibitions, site-specific installations, and architectural walking tours across the five boroughs.
One of the most significant events on the global cultural calendar, the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venice, 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 biennale is titled "Laboratory of the Future." The citywide exhibition features contributions from 89 invited participants, more than half of whom hail from Africa or the African diaspora, placing questions of decolonization and decarbonization at the forefront of contemporary architectural discourse.
Locally in New York, 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." Capitalizing on newly available federal infrastructure funding, the event convenes four diverse panels at the Harbor School on Governors Island. Experts, policymakers, and community members from Brooklyn and Queens will discuss pressing reuse opportunities, highway removal strategies, alternative transportation systems, and community land trusts for the aging Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
In Chicago, the annual commercial design fair NeoCon will take place from June 12 to 14, 2023. Established in 1969, the fair continues to gather industry professionals to explore the latest innovations in commercial interior design. Across nearly one million square feet of exhibition space, over 400 leading companies and emerging designers will showcase their latest products.
Competitions
The design competition circuit is currently highlighted by "Architecture at Zero 2023," which has an entry deadline of June 15, 2023. Presented in part by AIA California, the open competition invites students and professionals to submit design proposals for a new agricultural center in Allensworth, California—the first town in the state to be founded, financed, and governed by African Americans. Emphasizing core principles of decarbonization, equity, and resilience, the brief challenges designers to honor and advance the historic site’s vision of becoming a prominent center for sustainable agriculture and Black history.
