Exhibits

SAF's Annual Model Exhibit

Each year, SAF's Model Exhibit celebrates the creativity of local and international designers and firms by connecting audiences to the process of architectural design. Through physical and digital models, architectural renderings, and other displays, the exhibit unveils how architecture and design shape our everyday lives.

Our Model Exhibit typically runs in late summer and early fall. Check back for updates about our next exhibit. You can browse past exhibits online with the links below.

Exhibit Programming

The Seattle Architecture Foundation produces programs and experiences that amplify exhibits on display at the Center for Architecture and Design. Panel discussions, lectures, and workshops are some examples of the programming available.

To learn more, please check out our public programs.

Past Exhibits

Two adults view architectural models on white platforms.

2024 - BOLIGLABORATORIUM: A Danish Housing Lab

BOLIGLABORATORIUM: A Danish Housing Lab presents six architectural models of experimental housing projects across urban and rural Denmark. The models seek to address challenges related to housing affordability, new family and living patterns, environmental sustainability, shrinking rural areas, and more. The models were first exhibited at the 2023 World Congress of Architects in Copenhagen. The exhibit is presented in the United States by Scan Design Foundation, and is traveling around the Pacific Northwest between winter 2024 and spring 2025.

Learn more about the exhibit

2023 - CommUNITY

"CommUNITY", SAF’s 26th Architectural Model Exhibit, invites us to reflect on architecture as a catalyst for interaction, connections, and community. By decentering hyper-individuality and highlighting collective and collaborative narratives of the built environment, CommUNITY honors Seattle's diverse population through a design-focused lens.

Experience the exhibit online

2022 - Junction

“JUNCTION”, SAF’s 25th Architectural Model Exhibit, illuminates and invites us to reflect on the dual craving for spaces that celebrate individual pathways as well as those that promote collaboration. What connections will our society choose to build as we navigate an uncertain future? How can intelligent design create spaces – physical, virtual, or imagined – that honor identity while promoting cohesion?

Experience the exhibit online

2021 - Breathe

2021 is a year of aspiration. Emerging from COVID lockdown, we are ready to take a deep breath and consider our future. Aspiration means ambition and the act of breathing in. SAF’s 24th Annual Architectural Model Exhibit theme “Breathe” is meant to inspire submissions that reflect on this dual meaning: faced with the passing of an immediate crisis, how will we pause and rethink our world? When we do exhale, what new forms will we breathe into life?

Experience the exhibit online

2020 - Iterations

Iterations celebrates the germination of a design idea and how it's nurtured over time through the exploration of writing, drawing, modeling and material studies. These studies serve a myriad of functions, whether they depict the architectural elements employed, represent the building in its site, or serve to test a custom detail or connection. Iterations examines the dynamics of the design process, demonstrates the path to a final concept, and illustrates the influence a completed project has on the continuing evolution of the built environment.

Experience the exhibit online