In a moment defined by accelerating change and mounting social and environmental challenges, architecture is called to act with urgency. How Soon Is Now? presents a transscalar dialogue between research and design work produced by students and faculty in CCA’s Architecture Division. The exhibition explores how design research can assert agency, expand access, and respond to the immediate challenges of our time, from the scale of materials to the megalopolis.

The show foregrounds the tension between immediacy and deliberation, highlighting projects that reimagine architecture’s role in shaping equitable and resilient communities. From interventions addressing housing precarity, infrastructure inequities, and climate vulnerability to experimental approaches that question conventional construction processes and biomaterial systems, the works on view reflect a shared commitment to proactive and inclusive design thinking.

Through drawings, models, and artifacts, visitors are invited to consider who architecture serves, how decisions are made, and what timelines are prioritized. How Soon Is Now? emphasizes that architecture is not only about objects or aesthetics, but about responsibility, action, and possibility. By confronting urgency directly, the exhibition asks how design can operate at the pace of societal and environmental need while sustaining critical care, imagination, and accessibility.

Curated by Neeraj Bhatia, Irene Cheng, and Mark Donohue. Designed by Neeraj Bhatia with Vicky Cheung (BArch 2026).