The fourth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) will open to the public on September 17, 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 will respond to this framework through site-specific architectural projects, exhibitions, and programs across eight neighborhoods in Chicago and in the digital sphere. Curated by the Biennial’s 2021 Artistic Director—designer, researcher, and educator David Brown—The Available City will 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 illuminates the potential for immediate new possibilities, highlights improvisational organizers of the city, and underscores the exponential impact of small elements in aggregate. The Biennial is free and 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.
| Hours | 3:41 AM – 4:42 AM |
| Venue | Chicago Architecture Biennale |
| Type | Design Fair |
| Duration | Various Hours |
| City | Chicago |
About
Chicago Architecture Biennial
The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating an international forum on architecture and urbanism by producing year-round programs and a biennial exposition of city-wide activations for a diverse audience of designers, educators, advocates, students, and local communities. CAB’s programs are committed to producing opportunities to explore and address timely global issues through the lens of architecture and design, emphasizing community input, sustainability, and equity. Free and open to the public, CAB stands as North America’s largest international survey of contemporary architecture. CAB has shifted from an event-based model of hosting an exhibition and programs across to developing a combination of virtual programs and outdoor or socially distanced exhibitions, performances, and events throughout Chicago. This pivot has required CAB to consider new ways of engaging with local and global audiences that will likely impact our model moving forward. The Available City, the theme and title for CAB’s 2021 biennial, is led by Artistic Director David Brown, a designer, researcher, and educator based at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Available City is based on more than a decade of Brown’s research into Chicago’s 10,000 + vacant lots and the creation of an ongoing urban design proposal that connects community residents, architects, and designers to work together to create spaces reflecting the needs of local neighborhoods, Brown will engage both local and international projects and practices that reflect new concepts for shared space and collective agency in the city. 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.
