Chicago Evening Skyline (Navy Pier)
Photo via: Flickr/Bert Kaufmann

The art world may have its sights set on Venice for the upcoming Biennale (see The 2015 Venice Biennale List of Artists Is Out—See Our Exclusive), but here in the States, the Windy City is preparing to host the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial (see Chicago’s First Architecture Biennial to Debut in 2015). Bringing together no fewer than 63 architects from more than 30 countries on six continents, the Chicago event will run October 3, 2015–January 3, 2016.

The first architecture biennial ever held in the country, it is being billed as the largest North American gathering of international architects. Participants were selected by co-artistic directors Joseph Grima and Sarah Herda, with an advisory council that includes David Adjaye, Elizabeth Diller, Frank Gehry, and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

“We want to challenge and expand who people identify as voices who are leading the future of architecture,” Herda, the director of Chicago’s Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, told the Chicago Tribune. “Important ideas about architecture come from a lot of different places and people. We want the biennial to be a platform to explore that.”

With both emerging and established architects, including 10 local firms, the biennial hopes to explore architecture as a cultural practice, and to demonstrate how our interactions with the world are affected by design.

The Biennial headquarters will be at the Chicago Cultural Center, but exhibitions will also be held at sites across the city including Millennium Park, City Gallery in the Historic Water Tower, 72 E. Randolph, and the Stony Island Arts Bank, a new project by Chicago artist Theaster Gates (see Theaster Gates Splits Artes Mundi Prize Winnings with Nominees).

“The city of Chicago has left an indelible mark on the field of architecture, from the world’s first modern skyscraper to revolutionary urban designs,” said mayor Rahm Emanuel in a statement. “That’s why there’s no better host city than Chicago for this rare global event. The Chicago Architecture Biennial offers an unprecedented chance to celebrate the architectural, cultural, and design advancements that have collectively shaped our world.”

Faces of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Photo: courtesy of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Here is the full list of participants in the Chicago Architecture Biennial:

Al Borde (Quito, Ecuador)
allzone / Rachaporn Choochuey (Bangkok, Thailand)
Andreas Angelidakis (Athens, Greece)
Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation (Madrid, Spain; New York)
Aranda\Lasch (Tucson, Arizona; New York)
Assemble (London)
Atelier Bow-Wow (Tokyo, Japan)
Iwan Baan (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Erin Besler / Besler & Sons (Los Angeles)
Tatiana Bilbao S.C. (Mexico City)
Bjarke Ingels Group / BIG (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Santiago Borja (Mexico City)
Carlos Bunga (Barcelona, Spain)
Bureau Spectacular / Jimenez Lai (Los Angeles)
Csutoras & Liando (Jakarta, Indonesia; London)
Design With Company (Chicago)
El Equipo de Mazzanti / Giancarlo Mazzanti (Bogota, Colombia)
Frida Escobedo (Mexico City)
Didier Faustino (Paris, France)
Moon Hoon (Seoul, Korea)
Indie Architecture + Paul Preissner Architects (Denver/Chicago)
John Ronan Architects (Chicago)
Johnston Marklee (Los Angeles)
junya.ishigami+associates (Tokyo, Japan)
Kéré Architecture / Francis Kéré (Berlin, Germany)
Kuehn Malvezzi (Berlin, Germany)
Anne Lacaton & Jean-Philippe Vassal and Frederic Druot (Paris, France)
Yasmeen Lari / Heritage Foundation Pakistan (Lahore, Pakistan)
Lateral Office (Toronto, Canada)
LIST / Ido Avissar (Paris, France)
MAIO (Barcelona, Spain)
Marshall Brown Projects (Chicago)
Mass Studies / Minsuk Cho (Seoul, Korea)
MOS / Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample (New York)
New-Territories/M4 / François Roche & Camille Lacadee (Paris, France/Bangkok, Thailand)
NLÉ / Kunlé Adeyemi (Lagos, Nigeria; Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Norman Kelley (Chicago; New York)
OFFICE / Kersten Geers David Van Severen (Brussels, Belgium)
Onishimaki + Hyakuda Architects (Tokyo, Japan)
OPEN Architecture/ Li Hu & Huang Wenjing (Beijing, China)
Lluís Ortega / Sio2arch (Chicago; Barcelona, Spain)
otherothers / David Neustein & Grace Mortlock (Sydney, Australia)
Pedro&Juana (Mexico City)
Pezo von Ellrichshausen (Concepcion, Chile)
Plan:b Arquitectos / Felipe Mesa & Federico Mesa (Medellin, Colombia)
PORT (Chicago)
PRODUCTORA (Mexico City)
RAAAF [Rietveld Architecture-Art-Affordances] (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Bryony Roberts (Los Angeles; Oslo, Norway)
RUA Arquitetos (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Rural Urban Framework (Hong Kong)
SO-IL (New York)
Sou Fujimoto Architects (Tokyo, Japan)
studio Albori (Milan, Italy)
Studio [D] Tale (Harare, Zimbabwe; Capetown, South Africa; London)
Studio Gang / Jeanne Gang (Chicago)
TOMA (Santiago, Chile)
UrbanLab / Sarah Dunn and Martin Felson (Chicago)
VTN / Vo Trong Nghia Architects (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
WAI Architecture Think Tank (Beijing, China)
Weathers / Sean Lally (Chicago)
Amanda Williams (Chicago)
WORKac+ Ant Farm / Amale Andraos & Dan Wood, Chip Lord & Curtis Schreier (New York)