WANTED: New Homes for Chicago Architecture Biennial Projects

In the spirit of community and in an effort to reduce waste, the Chicago Architecture Biennial is offering a selection of its 2025 installations to cultural partners for installation and/or collection at no cost. Shipping and installation support may be provided as needed. See the following available works.

To express interest and learn more: 

Anne Shook, anne@chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org

1) Taglich

Materials: wood

Dimensions: 200 x 31 x 94”

Täglich is a spatial installation that creates an environment for interaction and encounters, emphasising the necessity of publicness and shared space. Visitors are invited to participate actively, moving through shifting situations between openness and enclosure, and to temporarily appropriate the space. Various media are combined to discuss the significance of public space and to make it a sensory experience. The installation is structured around twenty-two concepts that define the idea of a Täglich—an inclusive public space where diversity is seen as potential and plurality as the foundation of a democratic society. It proposes a new type of public architecture, both conceptual and spatial, that enables participation, dialogue, and collaboration in urban daily life.

2) Informal Flood

Materials: model (acrylic ,  plywood , fabric, lamps); surrounding plotted curtain, steel rods, clamps

Dimensions: 1.70 x 1.70 m , with surrounding curtain: 4m x 4m

This project envisions Buenos Aires in 2075, transformed by climate collapse and the breakdown of formal planning. As rising heat, floods, and sea levels render the ground floor uninhabitable, a new city takes shape above—elevated, lightweight, and improvised. With minimal state oversight, residents reclaim the urban fabric. They construct modular dwellings in the air, negotiating shared airspace through informal, neighbor-to-neighbor agreements. Suspended platforms and communal cores support daily life, while co-modules—rented by the hour and easily reconfigured—serve those excluded from the old formal city. In this imagined future, informality is not a sign of marginality, but a form of urban intelligence: adaptive, collaborative, and resilient. It offers a creative model for how cities might endure—and evolve—in the face of environmental and political uncertainty.

3) Soft Systems

Materials: fabric, cotton filling

Dimensions: 18 x 1 x 2.5’

Weight: 30 lb per panel

This installation features oversized soft drapes made from faux fur, industrial netting, and padded materials. The curtains transform the space into an immersive environment that invites visitors to slow down and engage their senses.

The work explores how materials designed for comfort and protection shape both physical space and emotional experience. By turning everyday textiles into large-scale architectural elements, the project highlights the cultural and social meanings embedded in the surfaces around us. Framed as a “partial reconstruction” from the Era of Softness—a time marked by over-comfort and abundance—the installation encourages reflection on material culture, memory, and how fashion and architecture influence the way we experience space.

4) Shifting Reuse and Repair

Materials: Cedar, Plywood

Dimensions: 12’ 11” x 9’ 6” x 15’

Weight: 8,000 lbs

This project reimagines the Door County Granary, a 1901 agricultural building in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, once used for storing and processing grain. Abandoned since the 1960s and marked for demolition, the Granary is the kind of overlooked, utilitarian structure that rarely attracts preservation efforts. Instead of focusing only on historically celebrated buildings, this installation explores how neglected and unremarkable places can be given new purpose. By considering unconventional approaches to reuse and repair, it challenges the idea that only “worthy” structures are worth saving—showing how even the most humble buildings can hold cultural and community value.

5) Our Second Skin

Materials: glass pieces, metal structure, LED screens, lighting

Dimensions: 25’ x 10’

Weight: approx 5,500 lbs over 250 sq ft (approx. 22 lbs per sq ft)

Technical Sheet

This pavilion surrounds visitors with over 2,500 shimmering glass pieces, shaped like fish scales, forming a curved, translucent structure. Inside, a video plays featuring interviews with architects, engineers, and artists, all reflecting on the use of glass in architecture today.

The piece invites visitors to think about how glass shapes the cities we live in—from the light it lets in to the barriers it creates. While glass can feel elegant and open, its constant use around the world also raises questions about sustainability and sameness.

To express interest and learn more: 

Anne Shook, anne@chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org