As the architectural community navigates an increasingly complex landscape of climate urgency, historical reckoning, and collaborative practice, cultural institutions around the globe are rolling out a robust calendar of exhibitions, symposia, and competitions. From major retrospectives celebrating twentieth-century masters to forward-looking community initiatives and international bienniales, the coming months offer a rich array of programming for designers, scholars, and the public alike.
Upcoming Exhibitions
Constructed Geographies: Paulo Mendes da Rocha
Matosinhos, Portugal — May 26, 2023–February 1, 2024
At the Casa da Arquitectura, Portugal’s premier center for architecture, a major upcoming exhibition pays homage to the life and profound legacy of the late Brazilian Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Paulo Mendes da Rocha. A founding member of the center who passed away in 2021, Mendes da Rocha left an indelible mark on modern design through his brutalist sensibilities and structural daring. Curated by renowned architectural historians Jean-Louis Cohen and Vanessa Grossman, the expansive show spans seven decades of the architect’s prolific production. Visitors will also have the opportunity to view a special project conceived by Eduardo Souto de Moura and Nuno Graça Moura. Designed to offer a comprehensive look into his career, the main exhibition is partnered with a smaller, more intimate gallery display and will be accompanied by an extensive public program featuring debates, academic conferences, and site visits.
Web(s) of Life
London — Through September 10, 2023
In London, the Serpentine Galleries are hosting the first major UK solo exhibition by Argentinian multimedia artist Tomás Saraceno. Entitled Web(s) of Life, the summer presentation is deeply rooted in Saraceno’s ongoing, interdisciplinary research into spiders—specifically examining their behavior, the intricate architecture of their webs, and their enduring symbolic weight in human mythology and cultural perception. Comprising a diverse array of artworks, video pieces, and immersive, interactive installations that spill out onto the Serpentine’s surrounding lawns, the exhibition serves as a physical manifestation of larger ecological inquiries. The show is produced in collaboration with two prominent initiatives founded by the artist: Arachnophilia, described as an interdisciplinary community of humans, spiders, and webs, and Aerocene, an environmental activist collective focused on fossil-free mobility and atmospheric awareness.
Ongoing Exhibitions
Shared Space—Collective Practices
Ghent, New York — Through June 11, 2023
Shifting focus to the Hudson Valley, Art Omi—an expansive arts center featuring a 120-acre sculpture and architecture park—is currently presenting an insightful exhibition highlighting the work of four international collaborative design practices: WIP, FUNdaMENTAL Design Build Initiative, Colloqate Design, and ASSEMBLE. Titled Shared Space—Collective Practices, the exhibition showcases built and conceptual projects that champion a community-centered approach to shaping the public realm. The featured works directly confront urgent contemporary social challenges, including gentrification, privatization, urban neglect, and systemic social inequity, offering models for how collaborative design can foster civic engagement and equitable urban futures.
Beauty in Enormous Bleakness: The Design Legacy of the Interned Generation of Japanese Americans
St. Louis — Through July 9, 2023
At Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), an evocative exhibition on view in the Thomas Gallery examines a poignant chapter in American architectural history. In the wake of World War II, WUSTL stood out as the sole school of architecture in the United States willing to enroll students of Japanese heritage. The exhibition explores the remarkable work and enduring impact of Japanese-American architects who survived unconstitutional wartime internment camps. The narrative centers on four key figures who studied at the university following their release from West Coast exclusion zones: Gyo Obata, Richard Henmi, George Matsumoto, and Fred Toguchi. While Matsumoto and Toguchi pursued paths elsewhere, Obata and Henmi permanently settled in St. Louis, where they established and led highly influential firms, namely HOK and Henmi & Associates. Through archival materials and built projects, the exhibition investigates the complex relationship between American modernism and issues of immigration, exclusion, and cultural identity, shedding light on the psychological weight of detention, the pressures of assimilation, and the architects’ active participation in Japanese-American cultural and political advocacy.
Seeking Zohn
Los Angeles — Through July 23, 2023
The MAK Center for Art and Architecture is currently presenting the first Los Angeles-based exhibition dedicated to the work of architect and engineer Alejandro Zohn (1930–2000). Born to a Jewish family that fled Nazi-occupied Austria for Mexico during World War II, Zohn became a prolific builder in Guadalajara from the 1950s through the 1990s, though he remains relatively unknown outside of his adopted homeland. Staged at the historic Schindler House in West Hollywood, Seeking Zohn brings the architect’s legacy to a new audience through newly commissioned photography and video works by contemporary artists Adam Wiseman, Lake Verea, Onus Luque, Sonia Madrigal, and Zara Pfeifer, displayed alongside rare items drawn directly from the architect’s personal archives.
Norman Foster
Paris — Through August 7, 2023
In Paris, the Centre Pompidou is currently staging the largest retrospective ever mounted on the career of legendary British architect and Pritzker laureate Norman Foster. Spanning six decades of prolific output, the landmark exhibition gathers original drawings, personal workbooks, and intricate physical prototypes representing nearly 100 projects. Among the monumental works featured in the retrospective are the Carré d’Art in Nîmes, France (1993), the sprawling Hong Kong International Airport (1998), and the futuristic Apple Park in Cupertino, California (2017), offering visitors an unprecedented look into the evolution of one of the world’s most influential high-tech architectural practices.
Yasmeen Lari: Architecture for the Future
Vienna — Through August 16, 2023
Austria’s national architecture museum, the Architekturzentrum Wien, is presenting the first major monographic exhibition dedicated to Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan’s first female architect and the recent recipient of the prestigious RIBA Royal Gold Medal. Born in 1941, Lari established her own practice in 1961, initially forging a path as a pioneer of Brutalism by designing striking Modernist buildings for Pakistan’s emerging middle class. In 1980, she shifted her professional trajectory by co-founding the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, dedicating her career to humanitarian causes. Most notably, Lari initiated a zero-carbon, self-build movement in 2005 aimed at aiding climate refugees and landless populations, utilizing traditional construction knowledge and low-cost, low-carbon materials to erect tens of thousands of resilient homes across the country.
1980 in Parallax
London — Through December 22, 2023
The year 1980 serves as the conceptual anchor for a compelling exhibition at The Cosmic House in West London. In 1978, Charles Jencks, a foundational theorist of Postmodern architecture, acquired a four-story Victorian terrace house in Holland Park with his wife, artist and garden designer Maggie Keswick. Over the next five years, Jencks, Keswick, and architect Terry Farrell meticulously transformed the interior into a built manifesto of Postmodern ideals. Following Jencks’s death, the residence reopened to the public in 2021 as an exhibition space managed by the Jencks Foundation. The current exhibition inaugurates the foundation’s broader research initiative to reframe 1980 as the true inception of the Postmodern architectural canon. Centered on a commissioned film by the Raqs Media Collective titled The Bicyclist Who Fell into a Time Cone, the exhibition also features site-specific wall drawings and three augmented-reality interferences spread across all four levels of the iconic home.
Events
Venice Architecture Biennale 2023
Venice — May 20–November 26, 2023
The global architecture community is descending upon Italy for the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. This year’s monumental event 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 theme "Laboratory of the Future," the citywide exhibition features contributions from 89 invited participants, with more than half hailing from Africa or the African diaspora, signaling a profound shift toward underrepresented perspectives in mainstream architectural discourse.
BQE 2053: Towards a Decarbonized Sustainable Multi-Modal Transportation Network
New York — May 20, 2023
As new federal funding streams become available for critical infrastructure repairs across the United States, the Institute for Public Architecture is convening a free, one-day symposium in New York to address the future of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE). Having suffered from decades of deferred maintenance, the aging highway has become a focal point for debates on urban renewal. Held at the Harbor School on Governors Island, the event brings together urban experts, policymakers, and community leaders from Brooklyn and Queens across four distinct panels. Discussions will explore radical propositions including highway removal, alternative transportation systems, the establishment of community land trusts, and grassroots visions for a sustainable urban fabric.
NeoCon
Chicago — June 12–14, 2023
Returning to Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, NeoCon will once again gather commercial interior design professionals from around the world to explore the industry’s latest innovations. Established in 1969, the annual trade fair will span nearly one million square feet of exhibition space, showcasing over 400 product lines ranging from established global manufacturers to emerging independent designers.
Competitions
Architecture at Zero 2023
Deadline: June 15, 2023
Presented in part by AIA California, the Architecture at Zero 2023 competition is officially underway, inviting innovative design proposals for a new agricultural center in Allensworth, California—the first town in the state to be independently founded, financed, and governed by African-Americans. Grounded in the core tenets of decarbonization, social equity, and environmental resilience, the competition brief challenges students and practicing professionals alike to envision facilities that honor and advance the community’s historical legacy while positioning the site as a thriving contemporary destination for sustainable agriculture and Black history.
