The Graham Foundation is an official site for Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, the sixth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Led by Artistic Director Florencia Rodriguez, SHIFT signals the opportunity and need to change direction—an invitation to think with others and to set new grounds for the interpretation and design of our built environments. This edition explores how architecture engages with the profound cultural, social, and environmental transformations shaping our world today and explores the possibility of envisioning alternate paths forward. Featuring over 100 projects by architects, artists, and designers from 30 countries, SHIFT convenes voices from around the world, in a citywide constellation of exhibitions and public programs. Together, they address urgent questions shaping the spaces we inhabit, such as housing, ecology, and material innovation, to demonstrate architecture’s role in shaping our collective future.

The sixth edition of CAB, which is free and open to the public, will open at sites across the city on September 19, 2025 and run through February 28, 2026.

Visit chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org to learn more

Florencia Rodriguez is founding principal of -NESS, an international cultural platform for architecture. As an editor, writer, and educator, she creates and leads initiatives related to architecture and design that span publishing, exhibitions, and consultancy, and her work is grounded in the belief that architecture is a vital cultural practice. Rodriguez is also Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Architecture (UIC/SoArch), where she was Director between 2022 and 2025. Before coming to UlC, Rodriguez was a lecturer in architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

In 2010, in Buenos Aires, Rodriguez founded PLOT, a publication focused on global architecture and contemporary discourse. She directed it until 2017, when she co-founded -NESS with Pablo Gerson. From that platform, she has edited books and organized events committed to the dissemination of new narratives, the exploration of alternative forms of design criticism, and discussions about the contemporary role of design.

In 2013, Rodriguez was awarded the Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she researched new modes of criticism and the architecture of the Americas. In collaboration with Gerson, Rodriguez created Monte in 2015, an independent space in Buenos Aires, where she curated and promoted an active public program on architecture and related design disciplines. She has lectured, curated exhibitions, served as a juror and organized international symposia in institutions such as the CCEBA (Centro Cultural del España en Buenos Aires), the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of Illinois Chicago, and the Torcuato Di Tella University, among others.

Rodriguez has received awards for her editorial work and published several articles in books and specialized media such as Domus, Oris, summa+, Arquine, A+U and Uncube. In 2020, together with Mark Lee, she guest-edited America, the 48th issue of the Harvard Design Magazine. Her most recent book, MCHAP 2 Territory & Expeditions was published in 2022, by IITAC, Actar, and -NESS. Rodriguez is currently editing the book Machado Silvetti / Drawings 1975-1999, to be published by Harvard Design Press, and working on a collection of her writings to be published by Park Books.

The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is a non-profit organization dedicated to convening the world to explore innovative ideas and bring people together to collectively imagine and shape the future of design.CAB stands as North America’s largest international survey of contemporary architecture and design.

The signature program of the Chicago Architecture Biennial takes place every two years at the Chicago Cultural Center and sites across the city.  CAB has hosted five editions since 2015: This is a Rehearsal (2023); The Available City (2021); …and other such stories (2019); Make New History (2017); and The State of the Art of Architecture (2015). Over the course of its internationally heralded editions, CAB has presented projects created by more than 400 architects, designers and artists from nearly 50 countries. The sixth edition, Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, opens in September 2025.

The 2025 Biennial Curatorial Team includes Associate Curators Igo Kommers Wender and Chana Haouzi, Assistant Curator Gabriela de Paula Weinert, editorial team members Isabella Moretti and Santiago Bogani, and graphic identity by Estudio Margem with Aleksandra Lindenberg and João Pedro Nogueira.