chicago architecture biennial – Page 3

2017 chicago architecture biennial week of 24 > 30 december.

Dec 25, 2017

above > randolph square / frida escobedo / mexico city

frida escoberdo has designed a monolithic timber, tiered platform in randolf square – a singular formal gesture with moveable modules that allows for informal lounging, gatherings, and forums. the installation mirrors the chicago cultural center’s gridded ceiling. if expanding the concept out the door to randolf street, one might start to think about what architectural theorist sarah whiting calls ‘chicago elastic grid,’ in regard to the 1909 burnham plan for the city that fosters a surprising diversity of subdivisions and city-block sizes. photography > kendall mccaugherty

[ 24 > 30 december calendar ]

the second edition of the chicago architecture biennial (cab) is the largest architecture and design exhibition in north america, showcasing the transformative global impact of creativity and innovation in these fields. this year’s biennial features over 141 practitioners from more than 20 countries addressing the 2017 theme “make new history.” artistic directors sharon johnston and mark lee have selected architects and artists whose eye-opening creations will invite the public to explore how the latest architecture can and will make new history in places around the world. the main exhibition is free and open to the public from september 16, 2017 through january 7, 2018. we are particularly proud to premiere our opening in 2017 in alignment with expo chicago.

chicago cultural center, 78 east washington street

2017 chicago architecture biennial week of 17 > 23 december.

Dec 16, 2017

above > gar hall where 24 plinths are arranged according to the figure-ground relationship established by mies’s plan for the illinois institute of technology (iit.)

horizontal city asks 24 architects to reconsider the status of the architectural interior. the exercise foregrounds the importance of the interior as a model of sociability. the architects reference a photograph of a canonical interior, from any time period.

[ 17 > 23 december calendar ]

surrealism begets the simple house by moon hoon.

Dec 9, 2017

above> fantastical architecture concepts can and do provoke reality assignments / left > 2015 chicago architecture biennial project: doodle constructivism: shellfish brazen / right > simple house

many of moon hoon’s residential commissions in south korea come from young highly spirited couples who have small budgets but big ideas. the simple house is one of the more pragmatic homes.

the chicago architecture biennial 2017 is in town thru mid-january 2018 so when i’m in the area i revisit the installations. 2017 is the second edition of this event, the first being 2015. each iteration features over 100 participants and most are emerging with vague name/project recognition. but, upon seeing architect moon hoon’s name and latest project it nudged me to refresh my memory. the above drawing was one of many mind-bending drawings hoon presented in 2015. the simple house is his latest reality projects completed in 2017

project specs
location > jeju-si, south korea
commpletion > 2017
home area > 206.0 m² / 2,227 sq-ft
site area > 714 m² / 7,685 sq-ft
design team > kim jaekwan, kim haeree, park jeonguk, song giwon, tomasz kisilewicz structure > rc

[ moon hoon ] [ seven sketches have actually been built – archdaily ]

2017 chicago architecture biennial week of 10 > 16 december.

Dec 8, 2017

above > finite format 04, pezo von ellrichshausen (concepciôn chile)

pezo von ellrichshausen have an ongoing interest in multiples, their project finite format 04 runs through the serial sequencing of an imagined building form: half tower and half plinth. the project demonstrates a mathematical obsession; the imaged building is presented here as an outline described by six factors that resulted in 729 variations, framed and hung in a monumental salon-style grid. the serial nature of these works might suggest a reading against a lineage of art from the 1970s often called process or serial art, which exhausted an idea or concept in a monotonous way.

[ 10 > 16 december calendar ]

2017 chicago architecture biennial week of 3 > 9 december.

Dec 2, 2017

above > ellie abrams and meredith miller of t + e +a + m

t + e +a + m examine the ways that ruins—commonly aligned with 19th century romanticizing of authentic materiality—were always mediated through technologies of image production. ghostboxextends their material research that has previously addressed the packard plant in detroit by examining new typology: the big box superstore. these giant stores were once a celebrated destination on the urban outskirts and peripheries but they are increasingly abandoned as contemporary habits transform to online shopping. redistribution as a practice has the potential to recover a type of building that – unlike renovation, adaptive reuses, preservation, or restoration = permits the circulation of building components, taken apart, moved around, piled up, and mixed with new construction to create alternative uses. t + e + a + m is looking for a patron to make it happen.

[ 3 > 9 december calendar ]

2017 chicago architecture biennial week of 26 november > 2 december.

Nov 25, 2017

above > in the foreground and below – the wallderful: mexico city dellekamp arquitectos proposes not a wall, but a bridge between countries.

although they are doomed to crumble, humans have always built walls: along borders, across disputed lands, and around cities. whether it was hadrian, qin shi huang, or nikita khruschev, leaders often proclaimed the need to fortify their territories. and indeed they did: erecting formidable walls whose remains are largely relegated to the backgrounds of tourists selfies. dellekamp arquitectos reclaims the rhetoric of the wall in its ironic and iconic post-function state. political context serves as a point of departure to imagine a future where the border becomes the connection and the wall an invitation.

[ 26 november > 2 december calendar ]

2017 chicago architecture biennial week of 19 > 25 november.

Nov 18, 2017

above > constructions and references, caruso st john with thomas demand and hélène binet

caruso st john (london) present a room that highlights the circulation of images, references, and histories between their own office and their collaborators artist thomas demand and architectural photographer hélène binet. a felt wallpaper – folds – forms a wall around a table of five models. works by benet hang on the wallpaper. the models represent a completed building, one in-process and three competition pieces. stripped of their contexts, removed from place and politics, they are close to autonomous architectural thought. on the other table we see models made for their collaborative projects with demand.

chicago cultural center, 78 e washington street

[ 19 > 25 november calendar ]

2017 chicago architecture biennial week of 12 > 18 november.

Nov 12, 2017

above> super models – circular model is ‘casa rotunda’, built stabio switzerland 1980 / shown here replica by mario botta in 2017 /// rust colored model is ‘monument to the resistence’, by segrate italy 1965 / shown here replica by aldo rossi 2017

super models presents replicas of twelve models collected by german architecture museum (dam ) during the 1980s. despite the assumption that museums only knowingly show original works of art, models commissioned to replicate buildings have long been part of the culture of architectural exhibitions.

such models are understood to function as three-dimensional photographs, transferring information about the buildings that cannot be shown in galleries to visitors without claiming any status as architectural works. these models are often made by model makers and sometimes unbeknownst to the architect.

the proliferation of institutions collectin architectural materials during the 80s, however, altered the status of these objects. the new market encouraged architects to shift their production to collectable objects, like models, and to equate them with architecture itself.

super models reflects on how this simultaneously eroded and amplified attachment to authenticity entangled the work of historians, curators, and architects, ultimately modeling not history but what has become a key feature of contempary creative practice.

chicago cultural center, 78 e washington street

[ 12 > 18 november calendar ]

2017 chicago architecture biennial week of 5 > 11 november.

Nov 4, 2017

above > entrance installation, chicago designer ania jaworska

welcoming visitors into the main venue of the biennial, this bright, brash yellow installation has consumed a smaller, much less interesting chicago cultural centre reception desk. architect ania jaworska interrogates traditional architectural classification by subverting the physical and historic forms of the arch and the column until they are almost unrecognisable – her column provides no support and her arch creates a physical boundary instead of an entranceway. the abstract, yet functional work is a structural hybrid that challenges and almost overrides its environment in the impressively ornate chicago cultural centre entranceway.

chicago cultural center, 78 e washington street

[ 5 > 11 november calendar ]

2017 chicago architecture biennial week of 29 october > 4 november.

Oct 28, 2017

above > vertical city

vertical city brings together 15 architects to revisit the 1922 chicago tribune tower competition that attracted 263 entries from the united states and around the world. the influence and reach of this particular project drove many responses and copies.

the most famous of these was an exhibition of late-entry drawings organzied in 1980 by the chicago seven, let vy stanley tigerman, that gathered a contemporaneious cross section of architectural ideas and influences. the chicago seven’s version of the competition was decidedly paper-oriented. the 2017 chicago architecture biennial eschews drawings and presents a scaled model, 16 feet hight. a most exciting sight and experience to walk among them.

[ 22 > 28 october calendar ]