The Chicago Architecture Biennial is officially underway

The world is changing fast, and it’s forcing humans to constantly adapt how and where we live — or else. That’s the driving theme behind this year’s edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, which opened Friday and runs through February.

The theme “Shift: Architecture in a Time of Radical Change,” is delivered by Florencia Rodriguez, the organization’s first Latina artistic director, who is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina and a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“I think we all feel that things are changing and we need to regroup and understand what is the world that we want to design and project,” Rodriguez said, after giving an opening speech to some of the city’s top designers and artmakers on Friday in a public unveiling at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Preston Bradley Hall. Her vision for the festival is presenting designs that present responses to our changing world. This means thinking about climate and sustainability and the types of materials we use to build, and how today’s designs will shape the future.

The festival will present the work of more than 70 architects, artists, and designers across multiple venues, including the Cultural Center, the grounds of the Museum of Science and Industry, the Stony Island Arts Bank and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies and the Fine Arts in the Gold Coast. All of the exhibits are free to the public. The connecting theme across sites: designs that speak to the lives of everyday people, from sustainable and affordable housing projects to social and environmental transformations. They’re all aimed at creating long lasting and inviting spaces that are accessible to everyone, Rodriguez said.Architecture is an artform that everyone sees, and often engages with everyday, but often subconsciously. The benches in a park, or the welcoming lobby of a public space, are examples of how architecture and design exist within our lives.

Rodriguez said one exhibit she’s particularly excited about is an installation by artist Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork, on the first floor of the Chicago Cultural Center. “There are inflatable walls,” she explained, “that inflate and deflate and seem to be breathing with symphony sounds. And you can see kind of the sound of the mechanics. It’s like the world that we know is inflating and then falling down and then it goes up again. That's a fantastic kind of metaphor for these ideas that we're bringing.”

For the first time, the Biennial will include “SHIFT,” a series of projects, spanning five months, that activate cultural spaces, civic landmarks, and neighborhoods throughout Chicago. Most notable is “Traces,” an installation of 10,000 dry-stacked bricks on the north lawn of the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. A tribute to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the exhibition traces the footprint of the World’s Fair buildings that once stood in that space.

Some people may not be familiar with the term "Architectural Biennial," but Rodriguez describes the event simply as a place to enjoy the beauty of architecture and learn new things about our world.

“It's a festival about the spaces we inhabit, about the built environment, and everyone can come enjoy the art and learn more about the decisions we make.”

Mike Davis is a theater reporter who covers stages across Chicago.