The Chicago Architecture Biennial is thrilled to announce its fourth edition, entitled The Available City. The Biennial will be developed in collaboration with Artistic Director David Brown, a designer, researcher, and educator based at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Through a reinvented and responsive new format, the 2021 edition will invite an international community together to participate in conversations about the impact collective space can have in cities today. Programming will kick off next week and continue throughout the run of the edition, which opens in the fall of 2021.
A concept that was incubated during the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015, Brown’s long-term body of research forming the basis for The Available City began with an inventory of vacant city-owned lots across Chicago—currently numbering more than 10,000 sites concentrated on the city’s South and West Sides. Over more than a decade of work, Brown developed this research into an ongoing urban design proposal that connects community residents, architects, and designers to work together to create spaces reflecting the needs of local neighborhoods. For the 2021 edition, Brown will explore the framework of The Available City on a global platform, engaging both local and international projects and practices that reflect new concepts for shared space and collective agency in the city.
CAB is also pleased to announce a major collaboration with the Danish Arts Foundation to create a newly commissioned work in 2021 that responds directly to the themes explored through The Available City.
Over the course of the first three editions, the Chicago Architecture Biennial has supported projects created by more than 350 architects, designers, and artists from over 40 countries considering critical topics through the lens of architecture and design. As a platform designed to highlight and explore innovation in the field, the Biennial is poised to present a global event in 2021 that responds to changes in the way we gather, engage, and learn. The fourth edition will imagine new and exciting possibilities for activating spaces throughout the city, expanding access to architecture and design, and engaging new voices.
To kick off our fall program, we invite you to join 2019 MacArthur Fellow, 2019 Biennial Contributor, and landscape and public artist Walter Hood in conversation with Artistic Director David Brown on Tuesday, October 27, 2020 from 5-6pm CST.
