The Chicago Architecture Biennial is gearing up for its fourth edition, and the organisers have just announced the contributors taking part this year, responding to the festival’s overall theme, ‘The Available City’. The list, rich and diverse, is exciting, tapping into innovators pomoting important ideas, such as urban space, social sustainability, diversity and community, instigating deep architectural debate.
The festival’s artistic director David Brown has paired these creatives with local community groups in Chicago, and together the teams will explore ‘forms of shared, collective space and inspire new and imaginative uses of vacant spaces in the city’. As a result, events and exhibits will pop up across town, including neighbourhoods such as North Lawndale, Woodlawn, Bronzeville, Pilsen, South Loop, the Loop, and Edgewater.
A total of 29 participating studios and individuals come from all corners of the world, spanning Cape Town, Caracas, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dublin, Paris, Basel and Tokyo. Exhibitors include Atelier Bow-Wow from Tokyo, global practice Gensler, Studio Ossidiana from Rotterdam, Matri-Archi(tecture) from Basel and Cape Town, In Care of Black women from Chicago, and Fala from Porto.
The biennial is set to offer a varied output on vacant urban space, including installations, activations, exhibits, projects and programmes. ‘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,’ said Brown. ‘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. I look forward to the conversations introduced by the 2021 contributors given their global perspectives and connections.’
The event, which is planned to unfold in both physical form and on digital platforms, is scheduled to open its doors on 17 September 2021. §
