The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) has announced the curatorial theme for the 2019 edition which will be: ‘…and other such stories’. The theme looks beyond architecture into an exploration of the conditions that affect it, through an expansive, research-led and global approach.
With its main exhibition hub at the Chicago Cultural Center, the third edition of the Biennial will ripple across the city between 19 September 2019 and 5 January 2020. Look out for its punchy new graphic identity designed by Los Angeles-based design studio, ELLA.
While CAB's home city provides much inspiration for the theme, this year it moves beyond the revered architectural heritage of the city to uncover the conditions at play that shape the built environment. Expect multiple disciplines beyond architecture to be addressed, such as visual arts, policymaking, education, and activism.
Yesomi Umolu, artistic director, and Todd Palmer, biennial executive director at the Chicago Architecture Biennial.
The theme draws from the city-wide and global curatorial process established by the team led by Umolu, and co-curators Sepake Angiama, whose work centres on education, and Paulo Tavares, a Brazil-based architect and academic. ‘Our approach to this edition of the biennial has evolved through conversations with architects, spatial practitioners, and everyday people in Chicago and other global locations, including through partnerships fostered in our research initiatives in the cities of São Paulo, Johannesburg, and Vancouver,’ says Yesomi Umolu, artistic director.
This year’s Biennial moves beyond the architectural heritage of the city to uncover the conditions that shape the built environment
Four curatorial areas of inquiry will segment the biennial: No Land Beyond; Appearances and Erasures; Rights and Reclamation; and Common Ground. These will dig deeper into the theme-crossing issues including indigenous approaches to landscape, monuments and memorials, and civic purpose in architectural practice.
‘We are thrilled that this year’s curatorial focus will open up the architectural conversation on key sociopolitical and environmental issues that shape our present reality and introduce new voices and perspectives. Through the dialogue they catalyse, we expect this Biennial to inform a collectively imagined future,’ says Todd Palmer, biennial executive director.
The previous edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2017 was curated by Johnston Marklee.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Chicago Architecture Biennial website
-
Audi launches AUDI, a China-only sub-brand, with a handsome new EV conceptThe AUDI E previews a new range of China-specific electric vehicles from the German carmaker’s new local sub-brand
-
Inside Izza Marrakech: A new riad where art and bohemian luxury meetHonouring the late Bill Willis’ hedonistic style, Izza Marrakech fuses traditional Moroccan craftsmanship with the best of contemporary art
-
Clocking on: the bedside analogue timepieces that won’t alarm your aestheticWe track down the only tick-tocks that matter, nine traditional alarm clocks that tell the time with minimum fuss and maximum visual impact
-
This New York brownstone was transformed through the power of a single, clever moveVoid House, a New York brownstone reimagined by architecture studio Light and Air, is an interior transformed through the power of one smart move
-
A new Texas house transforms a sloping plot into a multi-layered family homeThe Griggs Residence is a Texas house that shields its interior world and spacious terraces with a stone and steel façade
-
Light, nature and modernist architecture: welcome to the reimagined Longwood GardensLongwood Gardens and its modernist Roberto Burle Marx-designed greenhouse get a makeover by Weiss/Manfredi and Reed Hildebrand in the US
-
A bridge in Buffalo heralds a new era for the city's LaSalle ParkA new Buffalo bridge offers pedestrian access over busy traffic for the local community, courtesy of schlaich bergermann partner
-
Tour this Bel Vista house by Albert Frey, restored to its former glory in Palm SpringsAn Albert Frey Bel Vista house has been restored and praised for its revival - just in time for the 2025 Palm Springs Modernism Week Preview
-
First look: step inside 144 Vanderbilt, Tankhouse and SO-IL’s new Brooklyn projectThe first finished duplex inside Tankhouse and SO-IL’s 144 Vanderbilt in Fort Greene is a hyper-local design gallery curated by Brooklyn studio General Assembly
-
Tour Ray's Seagram Building HQ, an ode to art and modernism in New York CityReal estate venture Ray’s Seagram Building HQ in New York is a homage to corporate modernism
-
Populus by Studio Gang, the ‘first carbon positive hotel in the US’ takes root in DenverPopulus by Studio Gang opens in Denver, offering a hotel with a distinctive, organic façade and strong sustainability credentials
