SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change

September 19, 2025–February 26, 2026

Over the past decade, the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) has sustained an international forum on architecture and urbanism centered in Chicago and has continued to produce the largest exhibition of contemporary architecture in North America every two years. CAB exhibitions and public programs have engaged over 2.2 million visitors with innovative ideas in design through over 400 original projects created by architects, artists and designers from nearly 50 countries.

CAB is excited to celebrate its tenth anniversary with CAB 6, the next iteration of the Biennial to be held in 2025, led by Florencia Rodriguez, a writer, editor and Director of and Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago's School of Architecture (UIC/SoArch), who will be the Biennial's first Latina Artistic Director. 

Titled Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, CAB 6 will present an expansive and multi-faceted exploration of the field of architecture and the built environment globally, specifically as they respond to and are remade by a rapidly changing world.

In tandem with exhibitions, installations, events and a robust youth education program throughout Chicago, CAB 6 will also produce a series of initiatives, both local and virtual, that will expand the intellectual footprint of the Biennial beyond the city itself. 

The sixth edition of CAB, which is free and open to the public, will open its central exhibition in the Chicago Cultural Center on September 19, 2025 and run through February 28, 2026.

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Opening Weekend

The 2025 Chicago Architecture Biennial, SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, launches this September with a dynamic weekend of exhibitions, events, panel discussions, and activations that will continue across the city through February 2026. 

The Biennial officially opens to the public on September 19, 2025, with exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center, Graham Foundation, Stony Island Arts Bank, a site-specific installation on the grounds of the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, and a special performance and opening celebration at the historic Roundhouse at The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center. Across these sites, more than 70 architects, artists, and designers explore the profound cultural, social, and environmental transformations shaping our world today. The projects on view engage the uncertainty of our time, but also offer visions of creativity, resilience, and possibility—asking how architecture can contribute to the futures we want to imagine together.

Opening weekend also highlights programming from local partners, including the Chicago Architecture Center, National Public Housing Museum, and De Paul Art Museum, among others. These collaborations underscore the Biennial’s commitment to linking global conversations with Chicago’s unique architectural and civic landscape. The following is an outline of special programming and events throughout the opening. Select each event to find further information.

We look forward to continuing citywide expansion of the Biennial with the opening of a new exhibition site in November that brings together over 25 large-scale projects advancing the ideas at the heart of SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change. 

We invite you to join one of our many programs during opening weekend, and continue exploring as the Biennial unfolds through February 28, with successive moments of programming that spotlight its thematic capsules and partner initiatives across the city.