Archinect - News

Chicago Architecture Biennial picks UIC School of Architecture director Florencia Rodriguez to lead CAB 6, 'Shift'

2024-11-01T15:17:00-04:00

The scope of next year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB 6) will be responsive to changes within architecture and other salient issues united under the theme Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change and curated by UIC School of Architecture director Florencia Rodriguez.

The Biennial’s first female and Latin American Director, Rodriguez, will seek to chart a "new agenda for contemporary design" through the inclusion of installations, exhibitions, virtual initiatives, and other educational events taken from an international open call for what is now North America’s largest contemporary architecture exhibition.

She says the exhibition will be "an opportunity to gather global experiences, ideas, and projects that create an archive of contemporary architecture to inform decision making, education, debate, and collective thinking about the world we design."

SOM unveils new algae-based Bio-Blocks technology at the Chicago Architecture Biennial

2023-09-29T14:01:00-04:00

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has debuted a new concrete alternative material as part of its participation in the fifth Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB 5), which is taking place now through February 11th at multiple locations citywide.

The firm’s Bio-Blocks technology is being presented as a replacement for traditional Concrete Masonry Units (or CMUs) and can reduce emissions on a project by up to 8% if used at scale. The blocks were fabricated with help from Prometheus Materials using microalgae that were then subject to the company’s patent-pending photosynthetic biocementation process. The results seen therein offer a one-metric-ton total offset, according to the product team.

Image © Dave Burk | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)

Displayed in a spiral construction courtesy of the International Masonry Institute and J&E Duff, Inc., in The Mews space at their 167 Green development in the city’s Fulton Market District, the product demonstrates its future potential as a building...

Chicago Architecture Biennial announces extended dates and added partners for CAB 5

2023-08-14T17:36:00-04:00

The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) has just announced newly-extended dates and an additional slate of 50 contributors, bringing the total number of cultural participants to over 100 for the exhibition, which runs from September 21st to February 11th of next year.

Under the direction of the curatorial collective Floating Museum, CAB 5 will open in two phases: One, beginning next month, will hone in on select openings at sites across the city, which align with the previous Biennial’s decentralized ambition. The second, which is meant to encourage public participation, will see the activation of CAB’s other sites in coordination with exhibition programming hosted by the Graham Foundation and the Chicago Cultural Center.

Additional partners for CAB 5 include the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, Goethe-Institut Chicago, MAS Context, the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, and the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). This year’s...

Chicago Architecture Biennial announces CAB 5 participants

2023-06-05T11:12:00-04:00

Participants in the upcoming 5th edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) have been announced by the organization in a preview of their exhibition titled This is a Rehearsal. The event will open on September 21st at various sites throughout the city.

A total of 50 contributors were announced as part of the Biennial's curatorial process, which is being led by the local artists' collective Floating Museum.

Participants in CAB 5 include the 2023 Leibniz Prize winner Achim Menges; The Bartlett School of Architecture’s new Director Amy Kulper; studio: indigenous founder and academic Chris Cornelius; and Minnesota-based duo Dream The Combine, among a list of other prominent local and international names such as Carol Ross Barney, Camille Henrot, Tschabalala Self, and the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City.

According to the Biennial: ...

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...

Chicago Architecture Biennial selects Floating Museum collective to lead CAB 5 titled 'This is a Rehearsal'

2022-09-15T19:27:00-04:00

The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) has announced the theme and Artistic Directors for its upcoming fifth edition.

Under the title This is a Rehearsal, local artist collective Floating Museum will be tasked with explaining how "contemporary environmental, political, and economic issues are shared across national boundaries but are addressed differently around the world through art, architecture, infrastructure, and civic participation."

Co-directors Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, Faheem Majeed, Andrew Schachman, and Avery R. Young comprise the leadership of the eight-member collective. Together, they will leverage past site-specific installations, public programs, and other kinds of projects their community-based practice has experimented in with the aim of highlighting "divergent interpretations of infrastructure, history, and the role of aesthetics as a mode for expanding how we frame the relationship between our environments and ourselves."

A shot from the 2019 installation Foun...

Chicago Architectural Biennial opens new exhibition space at the Chicago Cultural Center

2022-03-29T17:41:00-04:00

The Chicago Architecture Biennial has announced the opening of the CAB Studio, a new, year-round exhibition space located on the first floor of the Chicago Cultural Center. The studio will be a space to explore design and present innovative ideas. It will host exhibitions, programs, and events, along with youth and family activities.

CAB Studio will open with the exhibition, Architecture of Reparations, by New York-based collaborative Riff Studio, including designers Isabel Strauss, Rekha Auguste-Nelson, and Farnoosh Rafaie. It incorporates a study of public policy, architectural history, and reparations to tell the story of the erasure in Bronzeville, a historic Black neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago. This is the focus and outcome of a thesis project by Strauss while studying at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

The exhibition uncovers the history and tells t...

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...

The architecture stories that defined October 2020

2020-12-29T14:53:00-05:00

While the news cycle in October was mostly dominated by the upcoming elections and ongoing pandemic, other aspects of life continued. In the world of architecture, these were the stories that captured our collective attention...

The Challenges of Academia

Lesley Lokko resigns as Dean of CCNY's Spitzer School of Architecture

After less than a year of her appointment as dean of CCNY's architecture school, Lesley Lokko surprised us all with her announcement of resignation. Work environment and systemic racism played a role, as we learned in our panel discussion with Lesley and other leaders of the architectural academy...

What will the future of architectural education look like?

As part of our panel discussion series for Parade, an exciting new initiative started by Archinect and Designer Pages, we spoke with a number of leaders in the world in architectural academia to address the bigger issues affecting the current and future state of education.

Get Lectured, Fall 2020 series

One o...

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 ...

Architecture critics take on the Chicago Architecture Biennial (and each other)

2019-10-02T05:00:00-04:00

As critical reaction to the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial continues to pour in, Archinect has collected some critical highlights from a collection of design writers and critics. (See here for Archinect’s 2019 CAB picks.)

And while this year’s takes on the biennial have been relatively level-headed, the entire affair was kicked off with a searing bit of friendly fire from multiple sources.

For one, the recent opening of ArchiteXX’s Now What?! Advocacy, Activism & Alliances in American Architecture since 1968 exhibition at the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Chicago was launched as an act of opposition to the Chicago Architecture Biennial itself. The group is officially boycotting CAB due to the financial sponsorship of the event by fossil fuel corporation BP. Though the Now What?! exhibition is open roughly concurrently with CAB, it is officially unaffiliated.

View of a postcard by Kay Janis advertising More Than the Sum of Our Body Parts, an exhibition in Chicago in 1993 by CARYATIDS...

While boycotting Chicago Architecture Biennial, ArchiteXX debuts Windy City run of "Now What?!" exhibition

2019-09-17T19:45:00-04:00

Now What?! Advocacy, Activism & Alliances in American Architecture since 1968, an exhibition created by gender equity-focused activist group ArchiteXX highlighting the impact of social movements on architecture and design, is currently on view at the Co-Prosperity Sphere gallery in Chicago.

The exhibition, which opens amid the backdrop of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB), is being presented without any official affiliation with the festival "due to the financial support [CAB] receives from BP," according to an ArchiteXX statement. BP, a London-based fossil fuel corporation, is the main financial sponsor for this year's CAB, and has donated $1 million to in support of the biennial and its affiliated projects and programs, including CAB's student design competition.

Coded Plumbing Exhibition with QSAPP at Columbia University and the Van Alen Institute by QSPACE_Courtesy of QSPACE

Remarking upon the content of the exhibition itself, co-curator and ArchiteXX co-founder Lori...

Early highlight contributors announced for 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial

2019-03-14T15:25:00-04:00

The curators for the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial have announced early highlight contributors who will create newly commissioned projects and other materials for the exhibition.

The initial list is comprised of 51 practices and practitioners from 19 countries. It includes architects, artists, collectives, and researchers, whose work touches on the biennial's four curatorial focus areas: land, memory, rights, and civic participation.

Among the designers tasked with exploring the theme of land is Chicago-based architect Theaster Gates, who will challenge the concept of land as property and commodity. Also participating will be Wolff Architects, a design studio in South Africa that works at the nexus of design, advocacy, research and documentation, as well as Territorial Agency, Caroline Caycedo, and Joar Nango.

The design collaborative MASS Design Group, best known for their community-driven approaches, will look at sites of memory. Other contributors whose projects will dive in...

Chicago Architecture Biennial announces 'Other Such Stories' as theme for 2019 edition

2019-02-06T13:54:00-05:00

Making its return later this year, the third edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial will go beyond design to address questions of land, memory, rights and civic participation. Announced yesterday, the theme "...and other stories" has been picked by this year's artistic director, Yesomi Umolu, and her team as a way to examine how histories, landscapes, and communities undergird the built environment.

“Our approach to this edition of the biennial has evolved through conversations with architects, spatial practitioners, and everyday people in Chicago and other global locations, including through partnerships fostered in our research initiatives in the cities of Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, and Vancouver,” said Umolu. “Through these engagements, we have drawn out a myriad of stories about how lived experiences across global communities, cities, territories, and ecologies resonate with architectural and space-making practices.”

The biennial will take Chicago's urban history, and the so...

The Chicago Architecture Biennial announces Sepake Angiama and Paulo Tavares as co-curators of the 2019 Biennial

2018-05-15T13:10:00-04:00

The Chicago Architecture Biennial has announced that curator and educator Sepake Angiama, and architect and urbanist Paulo Tavares will be joining the curatorial team of the 2019 Biennial, taking place next year. The co-curators will be working with the visionary curator and writer Yesomi Umolu, who was selected as the Artistic Director of the city's third biennial back in March.

Angiama, who recently served as Head of Education for Documenta 14, has devised education programs for a number of leading international institutions, including Tate Modern & Hayward Gallery, London. Her work centers around discursive practices, the social framework, and how we shape and form our experiences in understanding the world. As a recent fellow at basis voor actuele kunst, she conducted a year-long research into intersectional feminism and science fiction.

Brazilian architect Paulo Tavares' work is concerned with the relations between conflict and space as they intersect within the multi-scalar ar...

Chicago magazine interviews Yesomi Umolu, 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial artistic director

2018-03-21T15:57:00-04:00

Her own history is as global at the biennial itself: born in Lagos, Nigeria, raised in London, with a deep resume that incorporates curatorial and educational experiences at museums and galleries all over the United States and Great Britain. She’s hit the ground running on the CAB, planning for the third CAB that promises an international influence with love for the city and citizens who host this three-month event.

Anjulie Rao interviews the new CAB artistic director, Yesomi Umolu, for Chicago magazine: "A biennial can’t help but be contemporary and respond to the contemporary conditions. I know that as a biennial that’s what it is set up to do: to have a hold of the historical and yet have strong ground to be propositional, to posit into the future."

Yesomi Umolu appointed as 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial artistic director

2018-03-06T14:40:00-05:00

Chicago-based curator and writer Yesomi Umolu has been appointed as the artistic director of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial, which will make its return on September 19, 2019 through January 5, 2020. After evaluating candidates from around the world and from various disciplines, the CAB board members and previous Artistic Directors selected Umolu.

Having strong roots in Chicago, Umolu has a background in architectural design and curatorial studies, and she focuses her work on global contemporary art and spatial practices. She is currently the Exhibitions Curator at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. She is also a visiting lecturer, critic, and has spoken at various international institutions.

Some of her recent exhibitions explore the politics of the built environment, like the “Kapwani Kiwanga: The sum and its parts”, “The Land Grant: Forest Law”, and “The Museum of Non Participation: The New Deal”.

Chicago Cultural Center. Photo cour...

Over a half million visitors attended the second Chicago Architecture Biennial

2018-01-17T14:06:00-05:00

The recently concluded 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial saw over 550,000 visitors. Artistic Directors Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, of the LA-based firm Johnston Marklee, selected 140 architects and designers from 20 countries to participate. Among the vast number of attendees the biennial also boasts engagement of more than 10,000 students.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced, "The second Chicago Architecture Biennial reinforced Chicago's reputation as the vanguard of architectural, art and design innovation on the national and international stage".

Offering over 273 public programs, the event featured exhibitions by the Alphawood Foundation, Graham Foundation, Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The Biennial will return September 19, 2019 and run through January 5, 2020, again in line with EXPO CHICAGO.

2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial Spotlight: Point Supreme collages together a home

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

Returning to the second edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial is Athens-based architecture studio Point Supreme. Known for their signature rendering style of collage, which produce colorful tableaus weaving together historical elements, memories and dreams from their native city, the studio’s two-part installation in the Chicago Cultural Center displays the material manifestation of this speculative work.

Installation view of Point Supreme, Totems & History Wall, Courtesy of Chicago Architecture Biennial, Kendall McCaugherty © Hall Merrick Photographers.

Totems and History Wall construct the narrative for Petralona House, the personal home of the firm’s partners Konstantinos Pantazis and Marianna Rentzou. Designed and built during the recession in Greece, the home’s construction was defined by the assemblage of a variety of hand-made, found and gifted materials. Like their collages, the Petralona House seems to render a space which is at once personal yet familiar, local and ...

The Chicago Architecture Biennial to partner with six museums and institutions to get visitors to explore beyond downtown Chicago

2017-04-13T12:12:00-04:00

The Chicago Architecture Biennial, curated this year by the Los Angeles-based studio Johnston Marklee, has announced that it’s teaming up with six museums and institutions that will serve as “Community Anchor” sites. In short, these sites will host events, exhibitions and programming intended to bring the Biennial audience out to other parts of the city, and to encourage visiting Chicago’s historic museums. Funded by the Chicago Community Trust, the Community Anchor program “confirms the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s commitment to being a city-wide initiative by expanding beyond downtown,” according to a press release.

The museums and institutions that have partnered with the Biennial are: The Beverly Arts Center, DePaul Art Museum, DuSable Museum of African American History, Hyde Park Art Center, the National Museum of Mexican Art, and the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture.

“There is no better place than the City of Chicago to come together, share ideas, and focus on...

2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial participants announced

2017-03-06T13:14:00-05:00

Preparations for the second Chicago Architecture Biennial are in full swing, with the big reveal of the 2017 participants today. Titled “Make New History” and with Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee as Artistic Directors, the 2017 roster has the names of over 100 firms — many of them well-known — representing over 20 countries. The 2017 CAB will take place at the Chicago Cultural Center and additional sites across the city from September 16 through January 7, 2018.

Building upon the themes and ideas presented in the successful 2015 edition, the 2017 biennial will showcase a diversity of architectural work from across the globe and will focus on “examining the underpinnings of this resurgence of historical interest” and “the efforts of contemporary architects to align their work with versions of history.”

“We hope to examine, through the work of the chosen participants, the continuous engagement with questions of history and architecture as an evolutionary practice,” Sharon Johnston says.

Her...

Johnston Marklee announced as the artistic director of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial

2016-09-21T12:46:00-04:00

The Chicago Architecture Biennial and Mayor Rahm Emmanel announced the curators of the second iteration of the Biennial: the Los Angeles-based firm Johnston Marklee. The studio, which comprises Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, will be assisted by Todd Palmer of the National Public Housing Museum, who has been named Executive Director.

The second edition of the Biennial will take place from September 16-December 31, 2017. The two major supporters of the last Biennial will continue their patronage of the event. SC Johnson will provide $2.5 million, while BP will give $1 million. Like last year, the Biennial will be centered in the Chicago Cultural Center in downtown Chicago.

"The Chicago Architecture Biennial's return in 2017 confirms Chicago as an architectural hub," states Mayor Emanuel in the press release. "Last year's edition was a resounding success, and I'm pleased to see the great planning and support for the second Biennial, which will be even better. Not only is the Biennial's r...

Jeanne Gang's 'Polis Project' — an experiment in empathetic policing

2016-07-25T13:20:00-04:00

Conceived by MacArthur “genius” and architect Jeanne Gang, the simple project is part of her broader proposal to reimagine isolated, fortress-like police precincts as welcoming community centers. In her vision, better police precincts could house a barber shop, a garden, a gym, and lounges with free wi-fi—all designed to draw community members to hang out in stations and eventually build friendlier and more trusting relationships with the cops sworn to protect them.

In Gang's project, the West 10th district's police station in North Lawndale, Chicago, includes a basketball half-court right next to it, as an attempt to create shared spaces between police and the community whom they serve. Gang's 'Polis Project' was first exhibited at the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial, and was conceived in response to the report on "21st Century Policing" commissioned by President Obama.

Related on Archinect:

Amanda Williams, the architect behind the Chicago Architecture Biennial's "Color(ed) Theory", on art and activism

2016-03-23T17:16:00-04:00

I’ve been asked to do a lot of direct-action things, but have been hesitating to commit to anything. I feel like I need a strategy for this next step so I don’t get mired in the social activism and lose track of the art and architecture. It doesn’t mean that activism isn’t important, but it is a slippery slope to start advocating all the time instead of using my unique lens to focus on these issues.

Related on Archinect:

↑ One of the abandoned houses Williams painted for the "Color(ed) Theory" project, exhibited in the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial.