Aura Venckunaite is a Chicago-based architect and educator whose work connects architecture, fashion, and material culture. She holds both her bachelors and master’s degree in architecture from the University of Illinois Chicago. Before running her own experimental studio, she worked in several boutique and corporate firms. At the University of Illinois Chicago, she serves as a visiting assistant professor, where she leads advanced design studios and technology seminars. She has also lectured and taught at institutions including UCLA (in the Summer Architecture Program), the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)
Aura Venckunaite’s research-driven practice explored the intersection of fashion, architecture, and material culture. Her philosophy centers on redefining architectural boundaries through cross-disciplinary exploration, soft materials, and sensory experience. What if building were soft, flexible, and responsive like human skin rather than a rigid wall? is one such idea her practice explores. She sees architectural boundaries as a soft, flexible, and responsive garment that can adapt, levitate, or distort over time. Aura Venckunaite’s sees fashion as more than just a surface ornamentation. Garment assembly principles such as seams, drapes, and silhouettes inspire her foundational spatial methodologies.
Built Work
Aura Venkunaite was part of the team at Cannon Design in 2019 that designed the Western Michigan University Student Centre. She contributed to the initial concept, research, and spatial planning. Aura was inspired by the landscape of Michigan. She processed the leaf texture digitally and translated it into patterns for exterior shading panels and glass glazing. As the changing sunlight projects the leaf-life shadow patterns across the interiors of the centre. Western Michigan University Student Centre required detailed space planning to manage complex circulation routes and programmatic adjacencies across a large footprint.
Aura Venkunaite presented her speculative installation titled “soft system” at the 2025 Chicago Architecture Biennial. The oversized soft drapes of the installation are crafted from faux fur, industrial netting, and padded materials. When scaled up, these everyday fabrics act as a primary architectural component. These curtains, placed along the walking paths, transform the gallery into an immersive space. This spatial experience encourages visitors to slow down and engage their senses. This prompts visitors to reflect on memory, material culture, and the overlap between fashion and architecture. Through this installation, Venkunaite wants to highlight the social and cultural meanings embedded in physical surfaces.
Aura Venkunaite, in collaboration with her colleague Andrew Jennings, worked on the installation titled “Shimmerfall” (2024). This was the central exhibit for the UIC Year-End Exhibition. Shimmerfall is a suspended textile structure surrounding the building’s central atrium. The installation consisted of multiple layers of shimmering coloured fringe curtain. This layering created a sense of visual motion and shimmering movement. This curtain symbolises a cascading waterfall pouring creative work from the upper-level graduate studio down to the main public gallery below. Beyond this visually stunning effect, the installation creates an inviting and tactile atmosphere to the exhibition, encouraging visitors to touch and gather around the curtain.
Pedagogical Method
Aura Venkunaite’s architectural pedagogy focuses on turning the design studio into an experimental lab. She challenges the students to rethink how spaces are designed and built. Her core teaching studios are House of Couture, a 1:1 material mock-up studio, and a graduate introductory workshop. These academic studios centre on a distinct way of experimenting with materials, physical fabrication, and non-traditional design mediums
The House of Couture studio is an advanced studio that explores learning spaces through fashion. Here, students analyse how clothes are constructed. This understanding is translated into a cohesive collection of three experimental prototypes featuring operable walls, light fabric panels, and 3D-printed textile textures. Aura Venkunaite also believes that students understand material better when they construct them at real scale, as it engages their physical senses. The output of this studio is a collection of three house prototypes and an exploration of interior atmosphere using 3-D printing, digital rendering, and operable fabric or textile panels.
Aura Venkunaite co-teaches with Antonio Torres in a 1:1 material mock-up studio. The core idea of the studio is to make full-scale physical fabrication through sensory testing. Instead of speculative or fictional projects, here students analyse real international buildings. Students get to full-scale mock-ups of famous international building details instead of making a small-scale one. For the final output, one team built a rammed earth wall mixed with culinary spices that actually smelled, while another built a heavy glass block wall assembly.
Bridging Practice, Pedagogy, and Material Experimentation
Aura Venkunaite’s work bridges the gap between commercial architecture, pedagogy, and speculative design. Her practice shows how physical space is constructed, experienced, and remembered. Venckunaite’s practice merges academic inquiry, physical fabrication, and speculative narrative, establishing a paradigm where architecture becomes a living, tactile, and culturally responsive medium. Her work spans built institutional architecture, exhibition design, research, and experimental pedagogy. Venckunaite’s work demonstrates how interdisciplinary methods and emerging technologies can expand traditional building design.
References:
Biennial, C.A. (2025). Aura Venckunaite – Chicago Architecture Biennial. [online] Chicago Architecture Biennial. Available at: https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/people/venckunaite-aura/ [Accessed14 Sept. 2026].
Auravenckunaite.com. (2025). Selected Projects | Aura Venckunaite. [online] Available at: https://www.auravenckunaite.com/projects/ [Accessed 14 Sept. 2026].
UCLA Architecture and Urban Design (2025). Emmanuel Osorno & Aura Venckunaite: : AUD Summer Lecture Series 2025. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl8TWWsa6_8 [Accessed 14 Sept. 2026].
Images:
Anon, (n.d.). [Photograph-1] Available at: https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/people/venckunaite-aura/.
Anon, (n.d.). [Photograph-2] Available at: https://www.auravenckunaite.com/projects/.
Anon, (n.d.). [Photograph-3] Available at: https://www.auravenckunaite.com/projects/.
Anon, (n.d.). [Photograph-4] Available at: https://www.auravenckunaite.com/projects/.
Anon, (n.d.). [Photograph-5] Available at: https://www.auravenckunaite.com/projects/.
Anon, (n.d.). [Photograph-6] Available at: https://www.auravenckunaite.com/projects/.
Anon, (n.d.). [Photograph-7] Available at: https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/people/venckunaite-aura
Anon, (n.d.). [Photograph-8] Available at: https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/people/venckunaite-aura
Anon, (n.d.). [Photograph-9] Available at: https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/people/venckunaite-aura
