The fourth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial opened to the public on September 17th, responding to an urban design framework that proposes connecting community residents, architects, and designers to develop and create spaces that reflect the needs of communities and neighborhoods.

Over 80 contributors from more than 18 countries, the Biennial started showcasing a series of 15 site-specific interventions within the urban environment that tap into ideas of shared space and collective agency, exploring “who gets to participate in the design of the city”.
Curated by Artistic Director David Brown, this year’s edition operating under the theme "The Available City", present projects and programs that ask and respond to the question of who gets to participate in the design of the city by exploring new perspectives and approaches to policies. "The Available City" shows the potential for immediate new possibilities, highlights improvisational organizers of the city, and underscores the exponential impact of small elements in aggregate.

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 theme with Craig Wilkins and Artistic Director David Brown.
 
“Exploring the potential of The Available City has been a central focus for me for over a decade, and it is a fantastic opportunity to explore its ideas with global and local architects, designers, thinkers, and community leaders within the Biennial’s platform.

When the Biennial opens, our work is really just beginning — the Biennial is an open conversation on possibility, and I am excited to see what ideas, collaborations, and partnerships emerge from this forum”
Artistic Director David Brown.

More information

Label
Curator
Text
David Brown.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Dates
Text
Open to the public beginning on Friday, September 17. It will be on view at sites and in locations throughout the city, activated through in-person and online programming through December 18, 2021.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
Label
Location
Text
Chicago, USA.
+ + copy Created with Sketch.
- + copy Created with Sketch.
David Brown is a designer, researcher, and educator based at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Brown investigates non-hierarchical, flexible, and variable approaches to urban design. For more than a decade, Brown’s work has focused on The Available City, an ongoing speculation on the potential of Chicago’s city-owned vacant land.

Brown’s work has been exhibited in the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012), the Chicago Cultural Center’s Expo 72 (2013), the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2015), and received a grant from the Graham Foundation in 2011.

In 2006, Brown curated the exhibition Learning from North Lawndale: Past, Present + Future at the Chicago Architecture Foundation (now the Chicago Architecture Center). Brown’s writing includes the book Noise Orders: Jazz, Improvisation, and Architecture (University of Minnesota Press, 2006) and essays “Curious Mixtures” in Center 18: Music in Architecture—Architecture in Music (Center for American Architecture and Design, 2014, Michael Benedikt, ed.), “Lots Will Vary in The Available City” in The Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies (Oxford University Press, 2016, George Lewis and Ben Piekut, eds.), “The Available City” in the journal MAS Context, and “Futures We Could Have Today” in Flat Out. Brown has lectured on his work at Columbia University’s Center for Jazz Studies and the Politecno di Milano and has taught at Florida A&M University and Rice University.

David Brown is a long-time collaborator of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, having been a participant in the inaugural 2015 Biennial and presenting two pop-up exhibitions and a series of youth programs for the 2019 edition.
Read more
Published on: September 20, 2021
Cite:
metalocus, CARLOS GONZÁLEZ
"The 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial Opened to the Public featuring its installations" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/2021-chicago-architecture-biennial-opened-public-featuring-its-installations> ISSN 1139-6415
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...