Widely considered one of the most innovative experimental architects working today, Lebbeus Woods (American, b. 1940) combines an extraordinary mastery of drawing with a penetrating analysis of architectural and urban form and social and political conditions that is nourished by his wide knowledge of fields ranging from philosophy to cybernetics. Like many architects engaged in speculation, he has produced no permanent bricks-and-mortar edifices. For Woods, however, the act of articulating ideas graphically or through the medium of the model—of releasing those ideas from the realm of the mind into the real world—is as constitutive of building as is the act of physical construction. Woods is similarly unbound by conventional principles governing architectural form, function, and space, arguing that world conditions and rapidly changing contemporary life demand the invention of wholly new approaches to architectural space.

Through hundreds of architectural projects and installations, solo and group exhibitions, publications, and seminars, workshops, and teaching positions, Woods has passionately and imaginatively advocated forms that defy tectonic expectation and spaces whose uses are indeterminate. This exhibition, which will be the largest ever on Woods in the United States, will include in-depth representation of a selected group of projects shown through drawings, models, and human-scaled photographic blow-ups to create an engulfing spatial experience. Designed by Woods, the exhibition will also feature a site-specific installation that he describes as a drawing in space. Lebbeus Woods: Experimental Architecture is organized by the Heinz Architectural Center and will be accompanied by a catalogue.