World's Fair: An American Tradition in Architecture and Urbanism Innovation
Team: Dingliang Yang, Silver Li, Ryland Sample, Julian Whitman, Timothy Follett-Dion, with Mia Miao, and Julie Zhu
Program: Architecture, The Goldstein Museum of Design
World’s Fairs have long been part of America’s tradition of innovation and ingenuity, serving as a platform for experimental work in the field of architecture and urbanism, while simultaneously providing settings to exhibit and test avant-garde ideas. This exhibition showcases exemplary World’s Fair sites that characterize the emergence of new paradigms for architecture and city design, thereby enabling the evolution and progression of many design fields. It tells the history of this ongoing effort, which is dedicated to making a better-built environment for people and the communities they live in.
From an architectural perspective, this exhibition articulates the contributions of World’s Fairs and their buildings, which serve as experimental sites for the development of architectural styles and innovative building typologies. These large-scale projects have produced significant milestones in the larger narrative of architectural history. Through the lens of urban design, the exhibition also presents innovative strategies staged at World’s Fairs that accelerated ideas around city-making practice at both the national and global levels, including the City Beautiful Movement, Functional Planning, and Urban Renewal.
Finally, the exhibition highlights the legacy of World’s Fairs, whose implications extend beyond the scope of initiatives designed to be ephemeral or dismountable. Concepts conceived as experimental frequently serve as model cities or districts in the long term.
Keywords: World's Fair, Architecture, Urban Design
Other Collaborators: Institute for Advanced Study, Minnesota Design Center, and Minnesota USA Expo’2027 Bidding Commission
