Now in its third iteration, the Chicago Architecture Biennial will open to the general public on Thursday, September 19. The show’s main venue, the Chicago Cultural Center, has once again been filled with large installations, multimedia displays, and extensive texts. What you will not see, diverging from the last two installments, are the extensive architectural models, renderings, and full-scale mock-ups. This year’s show, curated by Yesomi Umolu, Sepake Angiama, and Paulo Tavares has a distinctly different feel than most architectural shows. Entitled “…and Other Such Stories,” the curatorial team opted for research-heavy content focusing on social justice, equality, and civic activism. Most of the 80+ contributors come from urban studies and activism fields, with only a handful calling themselves architects.

The exhibition will be on show from September 19th through January 5th at the Chicago Cultural Center and a number of other sites around the city.