The architectural world is setting an ambitious global agenda for the year, anchored by major institutional exhibitions, retrospective surveys, and critical competitions that address the pressing intersections of housing affordability, climate change, and cultural identity. Leading the charge this season, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has announced a dynamic new exhibition series designed to spotlight groundbreaking work from emerging architects who are redefining innovation in the field.
The inaugural presentation in this ongoing MoMA series focuses on 12 recently completed projects distributed throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The showcase features contributions from a diverse array of prominent and rising architecture firms, including Adjaye Associates, nArchitects, SO – IL, alongside recent Design Vanguard 2022 winners CO Adaptive and Only If. To bring these built environments to life for museum visitors, each featured project is accompanied by a newly minted short film produced exclusively for the exhibition by Brooklyn-based filmmaker Hudson Lines. The collaboration bridges the gap between spatial design and cinematic storytelling, offering audiences an immersive look into contemporary urban architecture.
Beyond New York, museums and galleries across the country are mounting significant surveys that examine the broader cultural and environmental forces shaping the built and creative environments. In Boston, the Institute of Contemporary Art is currently presenting the first comprehensive survey exhibition dedicated to the acclaimed New York-based artist and sculptor Simone Leigh. Spanning two decades of prolific artistic production, the expansive exhibition features a multidisciplinary mix of sculpture, intricate ceramics, moving-image works, and immersive installations. Notably, the presentation includes key works from Leigh’s celebrated 2022 presentation at the Venice Biennale, marking their first major exhibition appearance in the United States and offering audiences a profound exploration of Black female subjectivity and colonial histories.
Ongoing Exhibitions
The discourse surrounding contemporary housing and community resilience takes center stage in Bentonville, Arkansas, where the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is hosting an outdoor exhibition titled Architecture at Home. Designed to spark vital public dialogue about the future of residential design, the exhibition features five distinct 500-square-foot prototypes. Participating firms—including studioSUMO, LEVENBETTS, MUTUO, PPAA, and studio:indigenous—were selected from across the Americas, but each was tasked with tailoring their conceptual and structural prototypes to the unique housing needs, geographical challenges, and socioeconomic opportunities specific to the Northwest Arkansas community.
In New York, the New Museum is currently running the first-ever institutional survey of multidisciplinary Chicago-based artist and designer Theaster Gates, titled Young Lords and Their Traces. Gates, who gained international acclaim as the designer of the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion in London, is known for an interdisciplinary practice that seamlessly weaves together sculptures constructed from salvaged materials, evocative tar paintings, traditional clay vessels, collaborative performances, preserved historical archives, and large-scale architectural installations. Curated by the museum’s artistic director, Massimiliano Gioni, alongside Gary Carrion-Murayari, the exhibition pays deep homage to the radical thinkers, historical figures, and everyday cultural icons that have fundamentally shaped his native city of Chicago as well as the broader American landscape.
Meanwhile, the Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago is presenting James Wines: Nature’s Revenge, an intimate look at the visionary work of James Wines, founder and president of the New York-based environmental design studio SITE (Sculpture in the Environment). Over a storied career, Wines has designed and executed more than 150 architecture and environmental art projects across the globe, consistently championing green design and sharp conceptual commentaries on ecological degradation. The Chicago gallery exhibition highlights a compelling selection of Wines’s drawings and conceptual works pointing toward a speculative green architecture, featuring pen-and-ink drawings from the artist’s landmark 30-year retrospective in Berlin alongside newer compositions.
At the Center for Architecture in New York, New Practices New York celebrates the vitality of the local design scene by exhibiting the work selected from AIA New York’s 2020 biennial competition of the same name. Six emerging practices were singled out as representatives of the city’s most innovative boutique firms: BRANDT: HAFERD, Bryony Roberts Studio, City-group, GRT Architects, New Affiliates, and ANY. Each of these practices has demonstrated a deep, ongoing engagement with the complex fabric of New York City and its diverse citizenry.
In Atlanta, the Museum of Design Atlanta is exploring the cultural roots and spatial manifestations of a rapidly expanding design movement with Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip-Hop Architecture. Curated and designed by architect Sekou Cooke—whose work was also prominently featured in MoMA’s acclaimed 2021 exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America—the exhibition charts the trajectory of a design canon that has coalesced over the past 25 years. Featuring projects ranging from experimental pavilions and speculative building designs to large-scale urban development proposals, the exhibition presents a collective vision for alternative forms of architectural expression informed by hip-hop culture.
Addressing one of the most urgent socioeconomic crises in the United States, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., is hosting A Better Way Home: The Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge. The exhibition highlights the inspiring stories and scalable approaches behind the six winning initiatives of a nationwide $20 million grant competition launched in 2019. Prompted by the question of how to dismantle systemic barriers to ensure safe and affordable housing for all, the exhibition showcases innovative solutions across three critical categories: resident services and support, creative financing models, and advanced construction techniques.
Internationally, Stockholm’s ArkDes—Sweden’s national center for architecture and design—is celebrating the profound national and international impact of local innovators with a major retrospective titled Tham & Videgård—On: Architecture. Since Bolle Tham and Martin Videgård founded their Stockholm-based studio in 1999, the practice has grown to become a defining force in Swedish architecture, earning numerous international accolades. The comprehensive exhibition examines iconic domestic projects such as the Kalmar Konstmuseum, the famed Treehotel in Harads, and the KTH School of Architecture in Stockholm, alongside high-profile international designs like the Denfert art center in Paris.
Events
As the exhibition calendar unfolds, the professional and public events circuit is gearing up for major gatherings. Modernism Week 2023 in Palm Springs, California, returns with its signature celebration of midcentury modern design, offering more than 350 events spanning immersive home and garden tours, documentary film screenings, and expert-led lectures. This year’s marquee keynote presentation will be delivered by Thom Mayne, principal of the renowned architectural firm Morphosis.
Later in the spring, Orlando will play host to Coverings, the largest international tile and stone exhibition and conference in the United States. The massive industry gathering is slated to bring together approximately 800 exhibitors representing over 30 countries. In addition to extensive trade displays showcasing the latest material innovations, attendees will have access to a robust slate of professional learning sessions and targeted networking opportunities.
Competitions
For emerging creatives looking to make their mark, the Architectural League of New York has officially opened submissions for its 2023 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, themed Uncomfortable. Responding to a contemporary landscape defined by the acute pressures of climate change, evolving labor practices, and the dismantling of traditional hegemonies, the annual competition invites proposals that directly confront or engage with the state of discomfort.
Eligible entrants must not be current students and must have graduated from an undergraduate or graduate degree program within the past ten years. The competition accepts entries in any medium, encompassing both purely conceptual studies and built works. Winners of the prestigious competition will each be awarded a $2,000 cash prize, with their work featured in a dedicated exhibition and lecture series.
