Author: zachmortice

Metropolis Ι Oct. 6, 2015  Any architecture biennial worth its salt is a sprawling, unruly beast, with size enough for surreal thought experiments, art devoid of function, and slick, concise building models alike. The Chicago Architecture Biennial is no different, and its main exhibition in the Chicago Cultural Center gathers the majority of the event’s 100-plus participating firms… Continue reading 10 Highlights from the Chicago Architecture Biennial

Architect Magazine Ι October 2015  The stock in trade of David Adjaye, Hon. FAIA, is to start with a material-kit-of-parts influenced by things old and hand-crafted (fabric weaving, early decorative metal works, mud-brick construction) and end with public spaces that still read as Modern. Adjaye’s first mid-career retrospective focuses on his firm Adjaye Associates‘ spate of African… Continue reading Making Place: The Architecture of David Adjaye

I had the awesome experience of chatting with WBEZ Morning Shift host Jason Marck about the Chicago Architecture Biennial. I complimented his Italian, and got to hang out in the green room with Chicago rapper Rhymefest, who was on before me, which sorta makes him my opening act. He was plugging a documentary about reuniting… Continue reading WBEZ Chicago Architecture Biennial Preview

Dezeen Ι September 30, 2015 Visitors to the first Chicago Architecture Biennial, which opens later this week, will discover a raft of architectural treasures that are often overshadowed by the skyscrapers and institutions the city is famous for (+ slideshow). While the biennial has concentrated most of its exhibitions near the downtown business district of the Loop and the lakefront, organisers have… Continue reading 10 of Chicago’s Lesser-Known Architectural Gems

Dezeen Ι September 28, 2015 With the first Chicago Architecture Biennial kicking off later this week, Dezeen picks 10 of the projects – past and present – that have helped shape the city that gave birth to contemporary high-rise architecture. New York might be North America’s architecture and design capital, but Chicago is where all of the good ideas originally emerged. In the late… Continue reading 10 Projects that Sum Up Chicago’s Architecture History

Architectural Record Ι September 2015  With more than 100 projects from every inhabitable continent descending on Chicago for the city’s first architecture biennial, the work on display might seem to be grounded in a placeless globalist ether rather than the dozen represented countries. At least nine of the participating practices are located in two or more places… Continue reading Chicago Architecture Biennial Preview

Line/Shape/Space Ι Sept. 14, 2015 The Axiom House will take half the time typically required to build a four-bedroom, two-bath home. Plugged into the nation’s fastest commercial Internet service, nearly 40 monitoring systems in the Axiom will regulate temperature, oversee the safety of occupants, and dispatch robots to mow the lawn. It’ll consume net-zero energy, with… Continue reading A Net-Zero House for $220K? It’s All in How It’s Put Together

Architect Magazine Ι September 2015  Design with Company’s Stewart Hicks and Allison Newmeyer have a modest body of experimental and built projects that exist somewhere between Grant Wood’s American Gothic and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. In their investigative studio, the Chicago-based couple explores Midwestern building archetypes and institutions that are bizarrely iconic. Their projects are playful and surreal,… Continue reading Next Progressives: Design With Company

Line/Shape/Space Ι Sept, 1, 2015 Buildings simply aren’t made like anything else—that goes for sunglasses, furniture, appliances, and fighter jets. No other production process brings massive amounts of material to one place, constructs one item, and then hauls away the garbage. The inefficiencies are monumental. Modular construction has promised a great deal of potential to reduce… Continue reading 4 Ways a Robot or Drone 3D Printer Will Change Architecture and Construction

AIA This Week Ι Aug. 7, 2015 Ι The winner of the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s Lakefront Kiosk Competition reinvents Mies for the Midwest’s metropole For the thousands of visitors to this fall’s Chicago Architecture Biennial (sponsored in part by the AIA), and for residents themselves, Chicago is still Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s city. The German émigré’s stern-faced, steel-beamed skyscrapers… Continue reading Tectonics of the Ideal Kiosk