2021 Chicago Architecture Biennale Opening Exhibits Tour

The opening exhibits for the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennale have been unveiled. Our meeting with Artistic Director David Brown earlier this month offered a glimpse of what to see and do at the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennale. Now, the highly anticipated North American architectural event is underway. , with a range of pavilions, facilities and city- or neighborhood-wide activations that deepen the ideas of The city available – the common thread of this biennial edition.

The plan was to use the vacant lots as a way “to experiment with new possibilities to explore and activate space,” Brown had revealed. And the projects indeed seem large and engaging, ready to spark conversation and inspire action; Community values ​​and topical and pressing issues of equity and city living go hand in hand with colorful design pieces that grab attention and bring joy to some of the city’s previously empty sites.

Visit some of the best facilities at the opening of the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennale

Englewood’s Commons by Atelier Bow-Wow

The Atelier Bow-Wow facility in Englewood connects with Grow Greater Englewood (GGE), an organization that “works with community actors to develop local food economies and land sovereignty”. Protecting the land, while engaging residents with nature and locally grown food, the Anglewood Village Plaza at 58th Street and Halsted will serve as a key focal point, including a weekly community market, learning garden, as well as a “site for cultural discussions and film screenings, all rooted in black culinary and land traditions”.

Bittertang Farm Show

This is a collaboration between Chicago architectural firm The Bittertang Farm and CCA Academy, a private non-denominational high school in the community of North Lawndale in Chicago. Salon invites engagement with urban agriculture and agriculture within the PermaPark garden, with an emphasis on health and well-being.

Frame (Works) of Resilience by Borderless Studio

This Chicago-based collaborative research and design practice, co-led by Paola Aguirre Serrano and Dennis Milam, has chosen to focus its 2021 biennial project on the fifty or so public schools that have closed over the past four years in the Sides west and south of Chicago. The objective is to amplify creative initiatives at the service of these local communities. The Overton Exchange, a community pop-up marketplace, is part of this concept from Borderless Studio.

New witness trees by Hood Design Studio

“Trees that remain in place decades or even centuries after notable events are called witness trees,” explains the project team. Hood Design Studio and his collaborators have created a new set of witness trees for the city, with the aim of recording this year’s events – including the “pandemic, racial reckoning, police brutality and reform, and the crisis.” climate ”.

Manuel Herz’s Central Park Theater

An important social and cultural hub for the city of Chicago, the Central Park Theater has partnered with Swiss architect Manuel Herz for an installation that tells the story of the local community and contemplates its future and that of the threat. The project, a fascinating fresco called Traces of future pasts, recreates the floor plans, sections, and domestic spaces of buildings that once stood next to the Central Park Theater until the 1960s.

Reflecting our south side (global) by Matri-Archi (tecture)

This design aims to “explore how occupation and reflection can facilitate the learning of other cultures,” explains Matri-Archi (tecture), a dynamic collective dedicated to the empowerment of African women in development and education. space in Africa and beyond. The installation invites the links and similarities between Matri-Archi’s African references and the South Side of Chicago.

Woodlawn Awnings: Stories and Futures by Norman Teague Design Studios

Norman Teague Design Studios and BNMO Design have joined Project HOOD (Helping Others Obtain Destiny, an organization that provides professional training and resources to local communities in the Woodlawn and Englewood areas) and New Beginnings Church for this installation. A formerly empty field now becomes a place of performance, reflection and exhibition, bringing color to this part of the city.

The center will not hold by the open workshop

The critical issue of land ownership is at the heart of this article by The Open Workshop, based in San Francisco and Toronto. Examining the subject of resource sharing and domestic communes, the installation discusses scaling this idea into an urban commune, “a network of buildings,” according to the team. “The design challenges the landlocked nature of the municipalities to encourage full integration into the neighborhood. “

Block Party by Studio Barnes

A 15-block stretch under the Pink Line ‘L’ train developed by Open Architecture Chicago and Freedom House, this project has two main components: Block Party and Cover the grid (see below). The first is a collaboration between Miami-based Studio Barnes, Shawhin Roudbari (Colorado), MAS Context (Chicago) and the Westside Association for Community Action (WACA). It celebrates the rich history of block parties on Chicago’s west and south sides, creating a space for programming and community gathering, anchored by a structure designed to mimic the bouncy houses that are block party staples.

Cover the grid by Outpost Office

Cover the grid features architecturally scale urban paintings by GPS-guided robots that turn vacant land into landscapes for civic gatherings, inviting people to engage in unexpected civic space.

River frames by PORT

A gravel footbridge leads to the PORT facility, River frames, a group of slender shapes that reflect on the historical layers of its Southbank site. Simple steel frames arranged in minimalist warehouse structure outlines examine the idea of ​​new spaces for Chicago.

Grids + Griots by Sekou Cooke Studio

“The griot is an occasional storyteller, artist and healer and an important figure in many West African cultures,” says Sekou Cooke Studio. The design team here took inspiration from that concept, mixing it with a painted grid to express the tensions and opportunities for YMEN (Young Men’s Educational Network), an organization helping young black men in North Lawndale transform their lives. .

Soil Lab by James Albert Martin, Eibhlín Ní Chathasaigh, and Anne Dorthe Vester, and Maria Bruun

The winner of an open call organized by the Danish Foundation for the Arts in collaboration with the Chicago Architecture Biennale, Soil laboratory is located in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. As the name suggests, the project’s program is dedicated to exploring opportunities around materiality – and in particular brickwork. Soil Lab events include workshops and items constructed from brick, “an important material for both the architectural vernacular of Chicago and Denmark.”

The garden table by Studio Ossidiana

Alessandra Covini and Giovanni Bellotti of Studio Ossidiana brought their expertise to Chicago with The Garden table. The room – “part kitchen, part game, part stage,” say its creators – takes simple, cleverly designed modular blocks and turns them into places to sit, play, eat or allow wildlife to grow. .

SPLAM by SOM and the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

Photography: Kendall McCaugherty, Hall + Merrick photographers

This outdoor pavilion is constructed from sustainably sourced wood and designed as a classroom and event and performance space by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, in collaboration with Tsz Yan Ng and Wes McGee at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning from the University of Michigan, using the robotic manufacturing technique. ” Weave wooden beams together like fabric threads, SPLAM explores the idea of ​​using pieces of wood that are smaller than conventional solid wood construction systems. This means that the wood can come from renewable forests faster or, in theory, even components salvaged from deconstructed buildings, ”says Scott Duncan, SOM design partner.

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