The US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, commissioned by the University of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, officially opened today. The US Pavilion's exhibition, Dimensions of Citizenship, explores the complexities of belonging, and how the built environment supports or creates forms of inclusion. The exhibition is organized around seven spatial scales that examine the concept of citizenship: Citizen, Civitas, Region, Nation, Globe, Network, and Cosmos. Earlier in the week,members of the press were invited to tour the Pavilion and speak with the US team about the exhibition. Get up close to the exhibition with these articles:

Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune
“Chicago in Venice: A first look at the U.S. pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale”
The pavilion provides a platform for designers to envision spaces and structures fit for a world where technological, economic and social change runs in perpetual overdrive

Ted Loos, The New York Times
"Creators of Architectural Exhibits Reach To the Cosmos for Inspiration"
“There are two big questions,” said one of the curators, Ann Lui, a professor at the art institute’s school and a co-founder of Future Firm. “What does it mean to be a citizen today? And what’s the role of architecture in that? So we organized it around seven spatial scales.”

Carolina Miranda, The Los Angeles Times
“A new U.S.-Mexico border? At the Venice Biennale, imaging a binational region called MEXUS”
Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman’s MEXUS is on view as part of the U.S. Pavilion’s Dimensions of Citizenship. For the project, they’ve reimagined the U.S.- Mexico border at a time when borders are a central part of political discussion.

Zach Mortice, Metropolis
“At the Venice Biennale, Jeanne Gang Uses Memphis’s Cobblestones to Reflect on Monuments and Messy Civic Histories”
“How do you make the stones talk?” asks the architect Jeanne Gang. It’s not a philosophical posture, but an earnest question and one at the center of Studio Gang’s soon-to-open 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale installation at the U.S. Pavilion.