At the fifth Chicago Architecture Biennial, four Weitzman faculty members invite visitors to think differently about shared space.
'Commons Reimagined: Collectivity Through Space' was designed by FORMA, the firm of Associate Professor of Practice Daniel Markiewicz.
Chicago’s North Michigan Avenue—better known as The Magnificent Mile—is a bustling shopping corridor where tourists from around the world come to stroll amongst Nike, Apple, Gucci, and Eddie Bauer. It is a uniquely Chicago destination, with seasonal arts and culture activities that attract people who would not necessarily seek out that type of event or attraction. One such project is the fifth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, which was hosted in a variety of venues around Chicago, including Graham Foundation and Stony Island Arts Bank, but also a disused H&M department store at 840 North Michigan, which was transformed into a four-story kunsthalle, meeting the public where they are in the shopping district.
The department store of architecture is part of SHIFT, a sprawling exhibition with over 100 projects by architects, artists, and designers from 30 countries that artistic director Florencia Rodriguez calls “an invitation to think with others and to set new grounds for the interpretation and design of our built environments.”
With this broad mandate in mind, Associate Professor of Architecture Simon Kim and Mariana Ibañez of the Philadelphia- and Los Angeles–based firm Ibañez Kim designed an installation called Head in the Clouds, a column that allows visitors to step into its belly. The work recalls the mirrored installations of artist Yayoi Kusama and the figural characters of architect John Hejduk. Kim describes it as a slice of Americana, a literal reflection of the American dream as it changes in today’s turbulent political and economic climate. “This never-ending suburbia is a world within a column,” Kim said. “Looking into the box from below reveals a postwar dream: a single-family residence in a yard, endlessly repeating.”
Ibañez Kim's Head in the Clouds on view at SHIFT
Kim is one of four faculty teams exhibiting work in Chicago that poses questions central to the contemporary discourse both at SHIFT and in the graduate architecture studios at Penn. All four are using these projects as examples or jumping off points in their studios, bringing wide disciplinary conversations into the classroom.
Ibañez Kim’s Chicago project is part of a series of interactive installations created by the firm where visitors enter into other small worlds. “We fixate on these elements, such as columns or walls that open up and allow people to step inside,” Kim said. “You have to bow down to enter.”
At the nearby Chicago Cultural Center, Associate Professor of Practice Daniel Markiewicz and his architecture office FORMA built Commons Reimagined: Collectivity Through Space, a 19-foot-long modular, reconfigurable bench that sits on a custom-designed rug in vibrant colors. “Visitors are invited to sit, move, gather, and explore together," Markiewicz said. “The installation invites viewers to see architecture not just as buildings, but as a way to create joy, connection, and community.”
The project is part of the firm’s work on what they call “Playscapes.” In particular, it is a continuation of a community center and park-scape in Stamford, Connecticut inspired by the playful landscapes of iconic midcentury American artist Isamu Noguchi. The self-initiated proposal is still being considered by the city of Stamford, but a large Nolli map–style drawing of the project is on the wall in Chicago, drawing a direct connection.
“We really used this opportunity to tie together what we are looking at in studios in academia with what we are developing in our professional practice,” Markiewicz said. “But it is different than a typical museum-style setting, since people can really touch it, and interact with it.”
The large-scale movable furniture—which is meant to be like a full-scale model—is also a recurring design element for FORMA.
A model of Kwong Von Glinow's Forget-Me-Not Pavilion on view at SHIFT (Photo: Mikael Olsson)
Lap Chi Kwong and Alison Von Glinow of Chicago-based Kwong Von Glinow, who are teaching a third-year studio in the Master of Architecture program this semester, contributed the Forget-Me-Not Pavilion, which is a re-imagining of Ultramoderne and Brett Schneider’s Chicago Horizon Pavilion, one of three temporary structures from the inaugural 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial. New purposes and experiences and a refreshed design offer new life to the familiar structure. A grid of flower-shaped holes in the long-span CLT roof allow dapples of light to cover the ground, where colorful furniture invites visitors to sit and rest in the shade. “The renovation explores how architecture can adapt and endure over time,” von Glinow said. “The pavilion’s refreshed design invites visitors to see it in a new light—literally—through elements that transform the space and extend its role as a gathering place for the city.”
Also on view in the Chicago Cultural Center is the work of Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg of SO-IL, who are also teaching a third-year MArch studio this semester. The Brooklyn-based architects recently completed a housing complex 450 Warren, which opens the traditional apartment block up through a series of shared outdoor spaces and exterior walkways. “The gradients of indoor and outdoor space, with terraces, balconies, and courtyards opening on three sides of each unit recall sociable neighborhoods,” Liu said. “We wanted to ask ‘What is a new way of living together?”
The Chicago Architecture Biennial remains on view through February 28.
A courtyard at 450 Warren, a Brooklyn apartment building designed by SO-IL to encourage conversation with neighbors and time spent outdoors
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