On Wednesday, April 21, the College of Architecture will present its inaugural Chicago Lecture, which features prominent members of the Chicago community. Joining us this semester will be David Brown, the artistic director for the fourth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Brown is a designer, researcher, and educator from the University of Illinois at Chicago, whose work investigates non-hierarchical, flexible, and variable approaches to urban design. His work has been exhibited in the Venice Architecture Biennale (2012), the Chicago Cultural Center’s Expo 72 (2013), and the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2015).
Brown’s ongoing project, “The Available City,” explores the City of Chicago’s ownership of 13,000 vacant lots that collectively make up a space that’s twice as big as Chicago’s Loop. Brown proposes a “publically accessible collective space system in which each city-owned lot has potential as a surface element—a softscape, hardscape, or small building by a local nonprofit organization or the city.” “The Available City” is the theme of the 2021 Biennial.
The lecture will begin at 5 p.m. and is accessible via Zoom (passcode 792109).