Archinect - News

An installation at the Chicago Architecture Biennial challenges private property through a decentralized commons

2021-12-15T15:21:00-05:00

In an effort to tackle the physical inequity caused by an epidemic of vacant lots in the South Side of Chicago, a new design-research project creates a series of new decentralized “urban commons” spread out across different spaces in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood.

The Center Won't Hold, 2021. Image © Neeraj Bhatia.

The project is part of this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial, which culminates on Saturday, and is the brainchild of THE OPEN WORKSHOP, who conceived of it as an alternative to the commune system that can be tailored to meet individual community needs surrounding core areas of food, making, ecology, and care.

With support from the University of New Mexico and the Canadian Council for the Arts, the team worked to install a prototype in the Overton Grounds site that will serve first as a meeting space for various community members. Titled The Center Won’t Hold in an apparent allusion to the oft-quoted William Butler Yeates poem, the intervention offers a malleable s...

Shaping the City: European Cultural Centre launches third edition in unison with Chicago Architecture Biennial

2021-12-08T17:51:00-05:00

As part of its ongoing Shaping the City series, the Italian branch of the European Cultural Centre is being represented in this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial with an upcoming conference that will begin this Friday, December 10th, hosted by the Chicago Cultural Center on East Washington Street in the city’s New Eastside.

The conference’s third edition will tackle themes of architecture and the people and re-imagining the city via side-by-side comparisons of major global capitals in America and Europe.

The event is set to last three days separated into two sections that will include speakers like Ennead’s Don Weinreich, Tulane University’s Edson G. Cabalfin, ASPECTSS* consultant Magda Mostafa, and the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s Artistic Director David Brown.

Session I will explore the ascendent social issues of the day through an examination of new architectural val...

Chicago Architecture Biennial: A new pavilion by SOM & Taubman College makes a statement about SLT technology

2021-09-21T19:26:00-04:00

As part of their contribution to the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial, Skidmore Owings & Merrill has teamed up with the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning on the design of a robotically fabricated timber pavilion.

The project is the result of a year’s worth of research by Taubman Professors Tsz Yan Ng and Wes McGee and is meant as a showcase for the power of robotics to produce efficient and sustainable methods of design and construction.

Image: Kendall McCaugherty © Hall+Merrick Photographers

“Automated manufacturing technologies enable us to precisely and efficiently prefabricate a kit of parts which can be delivered to the construction site on demand, leveraging skilled labor where it is most effective in the process,” Ng and McGee said in a statement.

Image: Kendall McCaugherty © Hall+Merrick Photographers

The processors report that the Spatial Laminated Timber (SLT) they used reduces up to 46% of material use when compared to more trad...

Check out the first installation images of the now open Chicago Architecture Biennial

2021-09-17T16:34:00-04:00

The 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial has officially opened to the public in its fourth edition.

This year’s theme, The Available City, is explored by 15 installations featuring more than 80 contributors from 18 different countries.

Block Party by Studio Barnes (Miami, FL), in collaboration with Shawhin Roudbari (Boulder, CO) and MAS Context (Chicago, IL), organized in coordination with Westside Association for Community Action (WACA), Open Architecture Chicago, and Freedom House for the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Photo: Nathan Keay

The sites of this iteration include the historic Central Park Theater and Danish-backed Soil Lab in North Lawndale. Exhibitions at the Bronzeville Artists Lofts and Graham Foundation feature contributions from SHAU and El Cielo internationally. Essays from Yale University’s Elleza Kelley and Harvard’s Jill Desmini will be available online along with the writings of six other contributors along with a conversation about The Available City them...

Middle and high school students shine at the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial Student Ideas Competition

2021-06-17T13:25:00-04:00

Now in its fifth edition, the CAB Student Ideas Competition, hosted by the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB), encourages middle and high school students to explore design in their immediate built environment. The competition invited students to discover how "design can play a role in creating shared spaces and improving communities."

For the Spring 2021 iteration, participants were inspired by the Biennial's theme, The Available City, led by Artistic Director David Brown. Each project had to answer the following question: "How can existing urban spaces be reimagined to better reflect the needs and interests of local residents?"

Students were also tasked to develop projects that addressed architecture and the built environment through "varying disciplines including design, the humanities, visual and performing arts, and STEM fields."

The contest was open and free to Chicagoland students in 7th through 12th grade. Winning projects and teams were recognized in a virtual ceremony. ...

Chicago Architecture Biennial announces 2021 partner sites and organizations

2021-06-17T11:57:00-04:00

The Chicago Architecture Biennial has announced the citywide partner sites and organizations for the 2021 edition of the event. The sites and organizations will host installations, present programs, and collaborate with contributing designers from the Biennial’s opening date on September 17th, 2021.

The partnerships form part of Biennial Artistic Director David Brown’s vision for The Available City, which asks how design can identify new forms of shared space in urban areas through collective engagement. Brown selected the partner organizations to highlight a range of innovative approaches and ideas that can transform vacant space into community resources. The partnerships include a former elementary school being turned into a business and technology incubator, a 2-mile stretch of abandoned railways turned into a nature trail, and site-specific installations along the Chicago River.

The shortlist of CAB 2021 partner sites and organizations is listed below. Follow the latest news...

Chicago Architecture Biennial announces 2021 contributors

2021-04-28T13:51:00-04:00

The Chicago Architecture Biennial is returning this September under the 2021 edition banner, The Available City. This morning, Artistic Director David Brown unveiled an initial list of 29 contributors from Chicago and around the world to collaborate with local community groups to examine forms of shared, collective space and imagine new and innovative uses of vacant spaces in the city.

"The Available City results from a long interest in the landscape of vacant spaces that are so prevalent in many cities across the US, and beyond," Brown elaborated on the selection. "The 2021 edition asks us to imagine the transformative possibilities of collective spaces within those vacant spaces through a process of exchange and collaboration between designers and local residents."

The Available City results from a long interest in the landscape of vacant spaces that are so prevalent in many cities across the US, and beyond. — David Brown

The list of 2021 CAB contributors includes:

Ana Miljački (C...

Chicago Architecture Biennial announces 2021 theme, "The Available City" – David Brown appointed Artistic Director

2020-10-23T18:40:00-04:00

The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) announces David Brown as the 2021 Artistic Director for its fourth edition: The Available City. According to CAB the concept and title of the Biennial asks the public "to consider the impact collective space can have in cities today. Through a reinvented and responsive global platform, the Biennial will create opportunities for conversations about the intersection of architecture and design and such critical issues as health, sustainability, equity, and racial justice leading up to and throughout the run of the edition."

Brown's experience as a designer, researcher, and academic has led to his investigations revolving around "non-hierarchical and variable approaches to urban design." He is an associate professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His work has been exhibited in the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012), the Chicago Cultural Center's Expo 72 (2013), and the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2015).

Vacant lot ...