2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial Spotlight: T+E+A+M reimagines the contemporary ruin

2017-09-15T17:26:00-04:00

By now, it’s a relatively familiar narrative: over the course of the last few decades, there's been a mass return to urban centers from their outskirts, resulting in a field of abandoned strip malls and big box stores. What to do with these contemporary “ruins,” however, remains an open question.

In their installation for this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Ann Arbor-based studio T+E+A+M has imagined a strategy of “redistribution,” in which the physical elements of one such big box store are “taken apart, moved around, piled up, and mixed with new construction to create alternative uses.” It’s the type of bricolage, informal building logic one often finds internationally but rarely within the United States. Brought here, it’s a refreshing change from the type of totalizing, imposed visions often associated with architectural proposals for abandoned suburban sites.

Image by author.

A mise en scène model, replete with faux vegetation and miniature benches, Ghostbox plays off...

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2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial Spotlight: T+E+A+M reimagines the contemporary ruin