For the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, the United States Pavilion presents The Architectural Imagination, a unique curatorial project led by Cynthia Davidson and Mónica Ponce de León, which will produce new speculative architectural proposals for four sites in Detroit, Michigan. The 12 projects on display, by 22 American architects, comprise some 230 objects including architectural models, drawings, collages, and videos. To select the architects, the curators issued a nationwide call for expressions of interest in producing state-of-the-art architectural proposals for Detroit. From more than 250 responses, Davidson and Ponce de León selected 12 teams: A(n) Office, Detroit (Marcelo López-Dinardi, V. Mitch McEwen); BairBalliet, Chicago and Columbus, OH (Kristy Balliet, Kelly Bair); Greg Lynn FORM, Los Angeles (Greg Lynn); Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, Atlanta (Mack Scogin, Merrill Elam); Marshall Brown Projects, Chicago (Marshall Brown); MOS, New York (Hilary Sample, Michael Meredith); Pita & Bloom, Los Angeles (Florencia Pita, Jackilin Hah Bloom); Present Future, Houston (Albert Pope, Jesús Vassallo); Preston Scott Cohen Inc., Cambridge, MA (Preston Scott Cohen); SAA/Stan Allen Architect, New York (Stan Allen); T+E+A+M, Ann Arbor, MI (Thom Moran, Ellie Abrons, Adam Fure, Meredith Miller); and Zago Architecture, Los Angeles (Andrew Zago, Laura Bouwman).

Cynthia Davidson is executive director of the New York-based nonprofit Anyone Corporation and editor of the international architecture journal Log.

Mónica Ponce de León is dean of Princeton University’s School of Architecture, founding principal of MPdL Studio, and former dean of the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

Anyone Corporation was founded in 1990 to advance the knowledge and understanding of architecture and its relationship to the general culture through conferences, public seminars, exhibitions, and publications.