Chicago Architectural Biennial 2026: Shaping Urban Common
Chicago Architectural Biennial 2026.
Shaping Urban Common: Chicago brought together local residents, planners, lawyers, real estate professionals, architects, students, and other stakeholders to explore how urban spaces can be collectively imagined, governed, and transformed. Centered on a participatory game, the workshop employed the scenario of a fictional data center occupying all vacant land in downtown Chicago to stimulate critical dialogue and creative thinking about alternative urban futures, exploring how the city might develop through a counterproposal that redefines the role of the proposed data center.
Centered on a participatory game, the workshop employed the scenario of a fictional data center occupying all vacant land in downtown Chicago to stimulate critical dialogue about alternative urban futures. Through discussion, negotiation, and collaborative decision-making, participants developed counterproposals that critically examined the social, ecological, and spatial impacts of large-scale technological infrastructure while envisioning more equitable, resilient, and sustainable futures for downtown Chicago.