Archinect - Features

Yesomi Umolu on The "Unraveling of Our Received Language of Looking and Being in the World"

2019-10-07T07:00:00-04:00

Programming an international architecture biennial is no easy task, much less so when the goal is to create a program that seeks to recast prevailing narratives surrounding lived experiences of the built environment.

For the 2019 run of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB), artistic director Yesomi Umolu is attempting to do just that, however. By re-positioning, documenting, and indexing spaces, their materialities, and the narratives embodied by their existences, Umolu seeks to cast these elements as active participants in our society, as phenomena that transcend aesthetics, and instead embrace a multi-faceted and sometimes deeply problematic nature.

Archinect caught up with Umolu to discuss the goals of the biennial's curatorial output, design practices that "reflect upon a broad set of spatial conditions and make space through a variety of means," and how the ways we look at buildings might be challenged by these broadly based approaches.

Challenging Normalcy and Bringing Value to the Mundane with Architect Paul Preissner

2019-09-29T09:00:00-04:00

Running a practice can be a balancing act of staying creative, finding the motivation to produce great work, all the while committing to the demands of running a professional business. For Chicago-based architect Paul Preissner and his firm Paul Preissner Architects, this delicate dance also involves balancing creativity and responsibility to the work, as well as reinforcing his creative responsibility to himself.

Preissner describes his practice as "a pretty good architecture and design office from Chicago, Illinois." However, you'll learn to find that his work extends beyond the quirky and obscure. Having experience in working in realms that include housing, civic buildings, furniture, installations, and architectural exhibitions, Preissner continues to show the importance of staying true to the idea of just making things work. For this week's Studio Snapshot, Archinect was able to connect with Preissner to discuss how to making "normal things weird" and "popularizing the idea th...

At the Chicago Architecture Biennial, T+E+A+M Deconstructs the Big-Box Store as a Post-industrial Community Space

2017-12-28T15:00:00-05:00

This article was originally published on the blog of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the largest platform for contemporary architecture in North America. The 2017 Biennial, entitled Make New History, will be free and open to the public between September 16, 2017 and January 7, 2018.

Collage and Bricolage: Point Supreme’s Constant Reinterpretation of Greek Heritage Through the Architects’ Home

2017-12-05T11:00:00-05:00

This article was originally published on the blog of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the largest platform for contemporary architecture in North America. The 2017 Biennial, entitled Make New History, will be free and open to the public between September 16, 2017 and January 7, 2018.

Political pavilions: Dellekamp Arquitectos’ “Wallderful” presents a gathering space for the U.S. - Mexico border at the Chicago Architecture Biennial

2017-11-16T09:00:00-05:00

This article was originally published on the blog of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the largest platform for contemporary architecture in North America. The 2017 Biennial, entitled Make New History, will be free and open to the public between September 16, 2017 and January 7, 2018.

Exhibiting Visionary Histories: a Conversation with the curators of "Past Forward" at the Art Institute of Chicago

2017-10-12T09:00:00-04:00

This fall has brought no shortage of design events and exhibitions to Chicago, the hometown of American architecture. In addition to exhibitions at the Graham Foundation and Chicago Architecture Foundation, this year’s Biennial ties together numerous tours, performances, events, and allied shows in two and three dimensions. But no other event seems to complement the Biennial so well as the inaugural presentation of the Art Institute’s permanent Architecture and Design collection.

Exploring the architecture of the atomic age, starting with the Chicago birthplace of the world's first nuclear reactor

2017-08-24T09:30:00-04:00

The 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial blog is edited in partnership with Consortia, a creative office developing new frameworks for communication. This article also features embedded content from Are.na, an online platform for connecting ideas and building knowledge.

Photographing the demolition and transformation of Chicago's public housing

2017-07-25T12:00:00-04:00

A decade-long photo series shows the demolition and transformation of Chicago's public housing from a human perspective.

This article was originally published on the blog of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the largest platform for contemporary architecture in North America. The blog is edited in partnership with Consortia and invites designers, writers and other contributors to independently express their perspectives on the Biennial across a range of formats. The 2017 Biennial, entitled Make New History, will be free and open to the public between September 16, 2017 and January 6, 2018.

What we can learn from Chicago's CARYATIDS, the feminist curatorial collective that fought sexism in architecture

2017-06-27T13:11:00-04:00

This article was originally published on the blog of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the largest platform for contemporary architecture in North America. The blog invites designers, writers and other contributors to independently express their perspectives on the Biennial across a range of formats. The 2017 Biennial, entitled Make New History, will be free and open to the public between September 16, 2017 and January 6, 2018.

Johnston Marklee tackle the “tyranny of newness” in 2017's Chicago Architecture Biennial

2017-04-14T13:06:00-04:00

As the artistic directors of this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial, Johnston Marklee are interested in examining history and its contributions to contemporary architecture in a way that isn’t about promoting rearguard ideas, but rather one that demands a more thoughtful approach toward the value of “newness.”

You say Biennial, I say Biennale: 9 of Today’s Most Critical Architecture Biennials

2017-04-06T12:50:00-04:00

Every two years, hundreds of thousands flock to the historic small islands of Venice, where history and art meet to give us one of the most influential fixtures in the architectural world—The Venice Biennale of Architecture. While originally a more specialized art-world affair, biennials now figure in the larger cultural menu drawing huge crowds and the exhibitionary format, occurring every other year, has proliferated in the past two decades offering the field myriad options for getting one's expo fix.

The Exhibitionary Complex

2017-01-12T12:19:00-05:00

One morning I woke up to a surprising text: my friend was on TMZ. For reasons never communicated to me, she had been hanging out with a celebrity of some renown when, as they walked to a club, they were surrounded by paparazzi. To distract them, my friend impulsively decided to lift up her shirt. “FRIEND FLASHES BOOBIE DECOY … Photogs Forced to Choose,” the headline read.

The far-reaching work by "state-of-the-art weirdos" MOS Architects

2016-03-11T14:12:00-05:00

MOS has developed an impressive cache of work over a relatively brief period of time, including a range of designs unequivocal to the company’s unique, and at times quirky, style. Their approach considers economic climates and environmental limitations, but evades conventional aesthetics. Take it from the firm’s website; MOS rejects the ordinary. A succinct self-description concludes that their company is “a collective of designers, architects, thinkers and state-of-the-art weirdos.”

With the recent release of MOS: Selected Works, it seems fitting to reflect on a selection of projects that highlight the company’s discernible attitude toward conceptual design and architecture.

Towards a decentralized architecture with FOAM + the Blockchain

2015-12-09T20:26:00-05:00

Decentralized computation, virtual machines, cryptocurrencies: these terms seem to linger in shadows, conjuring abstract images of the “dark” web that lurks beneath the glossy surface of the screen. Architecture may be becoming “smart,” but we still perceive its domain to be brickwork instead of the tangled fiber optic cables it obscures – the walls that physically enclose rather than the signals that pierce.

The humanity of the Chicago Architecture Biennial

2015-10-13T09:15:00-04:00

As anticipation rumbled towards the opening of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, excitement and reservation came hand in hand. The eclectic mix of over 120 participating firms, coming from over 30 countries, made the snapshot of the profession appear, depending on your side of the spectrum, as a vibrant collage full of diverse applications, or frayed and vacillating. But after its opening on October 3, it’s clear that the criticisms dealing in this binary miss the point – the Biennial is more about architects than it is about architecture.