The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) has announced its 2017 roster of participants, selected by 2017 Artistic Directors Sharon Johnston MArch ’95 and Mark Lee MArch ’95 of the Los Angeles–based firm Johnston Marklee and including a range of Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty and alumni.

Following 2015’s inaugural CAB, entitled The State of the Art of Architecture, this year’s Biennial is entitled Make New History. It opens to the public on September 16, 2017, and remains on view through January 7, 2018. Its nexus will be the Chicago Cultural Center, with additional exhibition sites throughout the city.

Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee speak at the March 6 announcement of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Photo by Zachary Johnson, courtesy of the Chicago Architecture Biennial

2017 Artistic Directors Sharon Johnston MArch ’95 and Mark Lee MArch ’95 speak at the March 6 announcement of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Photo by Zachary Johnson, courtesy of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

“Our goal for the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial is to continue to build on the themes and ideas presented in the first edition,” said Lee. “We also hope to examine, through the work of the chosen participants, the fields of both art and architecture as these participants’ practices continue to evolve around the changing nature of public space,” added Johnston.

Make New History will employ a historical perspective on architecture, with a focus on the effort of contemporary architects to align their work with versions of history.

“From the vantage of the discipline, the Biennial aims to examine the interplay of design and the broadening access to, as well as recall of, historical source material,” reads the official description. “In the realm of building practice—from new construction to adaptive reuse to conservation—it will investigate the ways that the architect’s encounter with a site is, in fact, a prior accumulation of state and government regulations, social conventions, and markers of personhood to be interpreted and responded to. … Now, more than ever, the assumptions embedded in cultural exempla and civic imaginaries require examination and discussion.”

In collaboration with Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee around the Biennial, the GSD is looking forward to celebrating and convening alumni, faculty, and friends at event and reception on Thursday, September 14 at the Chicago Cultural Center. Additional information will be posted on GroundedVisionaries.org/events and will be shared with alumni via email.

Among the GSD faculty and alumni selected to participate are:

Iñaki Ábalos, Professor in Residence of Architecture, with firm Ábalos+Sentkiewicz

Kunlé Adeyemi, Aga Khan Design Critic in Architecture, with firm NLÉ

Amale Andraos MArch ’99, with firm Work Architecture Company

Andrew Atwood MArch ’06 and Anna Neimark MArch ’07, with firm First Office

Arno Brandlhuber and Frank Barkow MArch ’90, who as visiting professors led the Spring 2016 option studio “Poor but Sexy: Berlin, the New Communal.” Barkow joins Regine Leibinger MArch ’91, co-principal at their firm Barkow Leibinger.

Marshall Brown MArch ’00, MAUD ’00

Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein, design critics in architecture, with firm Christ Gantenbein

Frida Escobedo MDesS ’12

Kersten Geers and David van Severen, design critics in architecture, with firm OFFICE KGDVS

Go Hasegawa, Dunlop Design Critic in Architecture

Andrew Holder, assistant professor of architecture, with firm the Los Angeles Design Group

Florian Idenburg, associate professor in practice of architecture, and Ilias Papageorgiou MArch ’08, with firm SO-IL

Wonne Ickx, design critic in architecture, with firm PRODUCTORA

Zhang Ke, Aga Khan Design Critic in Architecture

Francis Kéré, design critic in architecture

Bernard Khoury MArch ’93 and Robert Levit MArch ’87 with firm Khoury Levit Fong

Jeannette Kuo MArch ’04, assistant professor of architecture, and Uenal Karamuk MArch ’03, with firm Karamuk + Kuo

Christopher C.M. Lee, associate professor in practice of urban design, with firm Serie

Michael Meredith MArch ’00, with firm MOS

Toshiko Mori, Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture, with firm Toshiko Mori Architect

Camilo Restrepo Ochoa, design critic in architecture

Jesus Vassallo MArch ’07

Charles Waldheim, John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture

Andrew Zago MArch ’86, with firm Zago Architecture