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University of Illinois Chicago faculty selected for leading roles at Venice and Chicago architecture biennials

2023-04-28T11:50:00-04:00

Two faculty members from the University of Illinois Chicago’s College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts (CADA) have been selected to share their work and vision at upcoming Biennials. While Norman Teague will debut new bespoke plastic fabrication works within the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale’s ‘Everlasting Plastics’ exhibit, Faheem Majeed will serve as Art Director for the 2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Teague and Majeed, assistant professors of industrial design and art respectively, have sought to “bridge the gap between academia and the civic arts, engaging students with local creative leaders and citizens to uplift and transform communities, particularly in the South Side of Chicago,” according to CADA. Beyond their academic commitments, both individuals have also “ardently advocated for artists to recognize their responsibilities as agents of social change,” the institution added.

U.S. Pavilion material by Norman Teague. Image courtesy: University of Illinois Chic...

University of Chicago researchers develop ‘chameleon-like’ material that can regulate buildings by changing from solid to liquid

2023-02-08T12:30:00-05:00

Researchers from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering have published details of a new material that can auto-regulate its environment by changing its infrared colors and liquid-solid state. In the future, the ultra-thin material film could be added to a building’s thermal facade in order to reduce the need for HVAC systems.

“Nearly 30% of the energy consumption and 10% of the greenhouse gas come from buildings,” says Chenxi Sui, a member of the research team whose findings have recently been published in the journal Nature. “Looking for diverse approaches to maintain a comfortable building temperature becomes a key point to creating a sustainable and carbon-negative future. Instead of controlling the indoor temperature in conventional ways, we keep wondering: Can we treat the building like the human body?”

Image courtesy University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.

The behavioral pattern of the new material has been likened to that ...

University of Chicago faculty sign letter opposing current plans for Obama Presidential Center amidst changes

2018-01-08T19:35:00-05:00

From disapprovals over the design to concerns about parking, the Obama Presidential Center has been met with strong opposition since its unveiling. In particular, residents of Chicago's South Side, where the center will be located, have been quite critical of the Foundation's location choice as well as its refusal to sign a Community Benefits Agreement.

Joining in on the conversation, more than 100 University of Chicago faculty members have now penned a letter concerning the Obama Center, opposing its plans on economic and preservation grounds. Though faculty members support locating the Center in Chicago's South Side—near the university where the former President once taught—they share concerns expressed by neighborhood groups about its currently planned placement at Jackson Park.

Woodlawn residents and Hyde Parkers protest current Obama Center plans back in November. Courtesy of Southside Together Organizing for Power.

According to the criticism, locating the Center in Jackson Pa...

The films and videos that have been selected for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

2017-12-18T15:42:00-05:00

Back in August, Niall Atkinson, Ann Lui, and Mimi Zeiger, were announced as the curators of the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Commissioned by the School of Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago and titled "Dimensions of Citizenship," the show will tackle the controversial question of what it means to be a citizen.

For the exhibit, the team has commissioned installations by seven participants: Amanda Williams & Andres L. Hernandez, Design Earth, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, Keller Easterling, SCAPE, and Studio Gang. Alongside these, a series of film and video works will also be displayed that explore multiple perspectives and reflections on the spatial conditions of citizenship.

Entitled “Transit Screening Lounge,” the collection features recent single-channel works and "will offer more ambiguous readings of contemporary citizenship, involving blurred boundaries, gray areas, and alternative histories. The sele...

Investigating the literary and sociopolitical implications of the skyscraper

2016-12-14T20:32:00-05:00

So I’d argue that the birth of the middle class, or the managerial middle class, is in some ways tied to the invention of the skyscraper.

Before the skyscraper, looking down at people from great heights was more of a figurative state of mind than an actual experience. But afterwards, the notion of people as dots on a landscape went beyond just a slangy Georges Seurat reference and became a Thing. But what were the ramifications of this change? How did novelists respond to the new structures, and what did those responses say about society and the influence of the skyscraper?

"[Henry James] tried to give the skyscraper a chance; he imagined seeing it and falling in love with it, but he really kind of ultimately dismissed it again as ugly, unaesthetic, a horrible structure that’s also destroying the ways that we tell stories and destroying the intimacy that his kinds of stories require," says Adrienne Brown, an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago whose forthcoming book, "The Black Skyscraper" explores just about every cultural ramification of the skyscraper one can imagine.

In this extended interview with JSto...

"A stack of neighborhoods": DS+R's design for Rubenstein Forum revealed

2016-05-26T12:46:00-04:00

The University of Chicago, weary of holding large events off-campus, hired Diller, Scofidio and Renfro to design a 90,000 square foot, multi-faceted meeting place. The result is the Rubenstein Forum, which will be placed next to the Harris School of Public Policy’s future Keller Center and across the Midway from Rockefeller Chapel.

In terms of the design concept, Liz Diller stated that "we composed the tower as a stack of ‘neighborhoods’ with meeting and communal spaces of all sizes—both formal and informal, calm and animated, focused and diffuse. The building prompts its varied populations to cross paths with one another where possible to enhance intellectual exchange. The lower floors of the Rubenstein Forum are porous and dynamic with connections to the campus and the community in all directions. As one climbs the building, there is a progressive retreat from the everyday to more contemplative spaces with dramatic views of Chicago and Lake Michigan.”

What else is DS+R up to these ...

University of Chicago, "where fun comes to die," to get its first ever undergraduate architecture program

2015-10-06T18:18:00-04:00

The art history department recently announced a new minor program in architectural studies, enabling students to pursue a program of study dedicated specifically to architecture for the first time ever. [...] The architectural studies program is currently being offered only as a minor. “We would like to set up a dedicated major, perhaps even an interdisciplinary one, in the future,” Taylor said, but an option to major specifically in architectural studies is not yet available.