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Faculty and alumni to participate in 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, “Make New History”

The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) has announced its 2017 roster of participants, selected by 2017 Artistic Directors Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee (both MArch ’95) of the Los Angeles–based firm Johnston Marklee and including a range of Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty and alumni.

Following 2015’s inaugural CAB, entitled The State of the Art of Architecture, this year’s Biennial is entitled Make New History. It opens to the public on September 16, 2017, and remains on view through January 7, 2018. Its nexus will be the Chicago Cultural Center, with additional exhibition sites throughout the city.

“Our goal for the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial is to continue to build on the themes and ideas presented in the first edition,” said Lee. “We also hope to examine, through the work of the chosen participants, the fields of both art and architecture as these participants’ practices continue to evolve around the changing nature of public space,” added Johnston.

Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee speak at the announcement of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial
Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee speak at the March 6 announcement of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Photo by Zachary James Johnston, courtesy of the Chicago Architecture Biennial

Make New History will employ a historical perspective on architecture, with a focus on the effort of contemporary architects to align their work with versions of history.

“From the vantage of the discipline, the Biennial aims to examine the interplay of design and the broadening access to, as well as recall of, historical source material,” reads the official description. “In the realm of building practice—from new construction to adaptive reuse to conservation—it will investigate the ways that the architect’s encounter with a site is, in fact, a prior accumulation of state and government regulations, social conventions, and markers of personhood to be interpreted and responded to. … Now, more than ever, the assumptions embedded in cultural exempla and civic imaginaries require examination and discussion.”

Among the GSD faculty and alumni selected to participate are:

Iñaki Ábalos, Professor in Residence of Architecture, with firm Ábalos+Sentkiewicz

Kunlé Adeyemi, Aga Khan Design Critic in Architecture, with firm NLÉ

Amale Andraos (MArch ’99), with firm Work Architecture Company

Andrew Atwood (MArch ’06) and Anna Neimark (MArch ’07), with firm First Office

Arno Brandlhuber and Frank Barkow (MArch ’90), who as visiting professors led the Spring 2016 option studio “Poor but Sexy: Berlin, the New Communal.” Barkow joins Regine Leibinger (MArch ’91), co-principal at their firm Barkow Leibinger.

Marshall Brown (MArch/MAUD ’00) 

Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein, design critics in architecture, with firm Christ Gantenbei 

Frida Escobedo (MDes ’12)

Kersten Geers and David van Severen, design critics in architecture, with firm OFFICE KGDVS

Go Hasegawa, Dunlop Design Critic in Architecture

Andrew Holder, assistant professor of architecture, with firm the Los Angeles Design Group

Florian Idenburg, associate professor in practice of architecture, and Ilias Papageorgiou (MArch ’08), with firm SO-IL

Wonne Ickx, design critic in architecture, with firm PRODUCTORA 

Zhang Ke, Aga Khan Design Critic in Architecture

Francis Kéré, design critic in architecture

Bernard Khoury (MArch ’93) and Robert Levit (MArch ’87) with firm Khoury Levit Fong

Jeannette Kuo (MArch ’04), assistant professor of architecture, and Uenal Karamuk (MArch ’03), with firm Karamuk + Kuo

Christopher C.M. Lee, associate professor in practice of urban design, with firm Serie

Michael Meredith (MArch ’00), with firm MOS

Toshiko Mori, Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture, with firm Toshiko Mori Architect 

Camilo Restrepo Ochoa, design critic in architecture

Jesus Vassallo (MArch ’07) 

Charles Waldheim, John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture

Andrew Zago (MArch ’86), with firm Zago Architecture