2021 chicago architecture biennial

a collaboration with blue tin production and studio gang creates two inaugural happenings: an exhibition — a different future in the making: building garment worker power & a broader abolitionist movement; and blue tin production’s corporate office — 63rd house. a third element includes the opening of studio gang’s new gallery space in wicker park where this exhibition debuts. that’s quite an announcement!

the opening of the gallery coincided with the opening of the 2021 chicago architecture biennial (cab), where studio gang was a partner. because of the pandemic which affected long-established global venues, such as the venice architecture biennale, whose dates were put off twice — first, from may to august 2020, then to may 2021, chicago’s events will offer content within a neighborhood-centric format throughout the city.

the 2021 chicago event, titled the available city includes 15 site-specific architectural installations: located on public and private lots located in chicago’s neighborhoods of north lawndale, bronzeville, woodlawn, englewood, pilsen, and the south loop. there are also two exhibition-based explorations located in an unused storefront space in bronzeville and at the graham foundation.

[ the exhibition ]

a different future in the making shows how these questions are being explored by blue tin production, the first apparel manufacturing worker co-operative in the u.s. run by immigrant, refugee, and working-class women of color. materializing blue tin’s radical model and vision using the tools and techniques of garment work, this exhibition also reveals how the co-operative is seeding greater change through their newest project: 63rd house, a community space and manufacturing studio in chicago lawn designed by studio gang.

what can bottom-up, systemic change look like in the garment industry—and beyond—when exploitation and violence are replaced by community and care? and what role might architecture and design play in this transformation?

on view
20 november 2021 > 11 february 2022
1520 west division street chicago
[ tickets/reservations ]

above> a concept presentation of the 63rd house headquarters / below> a trench coat made by blue tin, glimpsed through a hand-sewn curtain by diana aguilar and hale ekinci, 2021

[ studio gang ] photos steve hall (c) hall + merrick