Design Beyond Buildings:
IIT College of Architecture Spring 2020 Salon
Investigating overlap in the design disciplines.
The contemporary architectural discipline is one that is no longer restricted to buildings. The transdisciplinary relationships that architecture holds with the external world are plentiful, such as art, performance, fashion, theater, and curation. Through an interrogation of the contemporary interests of the architect and the architecture student, this seminar looks to expose students to these external worlds to identify possible futures of the discipline through open discourse with professionals in the form of salons.
Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize
Recognizing excellent design in North and South America.
Dirk Denison is the Director of the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Founded in 2012 in Chicago, MCHAP is a biennial award recognizing excellence in built works of architecture in the Americas. Beyond simply identifying these works, MCHAP actively shares and draws on their stories. The prize is a platform bringing nominators, jury members, students, faculty, practitioners, and clients into an essential dialogue about what architecture makes possible. The result is a rich array of outputs: engaging events and symposia, inventive studios and workshops, and sophisticated, globally recognized publications.
Chicago Switch Flat:
Come Home Initiative
Rebuilding wealth regeneration.
The original Chicago three-flat was designed as a tool for families to generate wealth, typically having an owner occupy one unit while being able to lease the rest of the building to generate income and reduce their housing expenses. As wealth inequality has grown in the city, more and more of these buildings are being demolished or deconverted to single family homes, creating an environment where unit ownership is more and more inaccessible. Our proposal seeks to enhance the affordability and flexibility of the three-flat typology with generous, airy, and light-filled living spaces.
Grow Together Englewood:
IIT College of Architecture Spring 2023 Studio
Developing climate-responsive and just neighborhoods.
Living Neighborhoods is an interdisciplinary design study focusing on future neighborhood development goals in Chicago, addressing current social and environmental justice priorities. The initiative brings together academia, community, and government through collaboration with the City of Chicago and the Department of Planning and Development (DPD) in the context of the Invest South/West Plan.
Drawings by Caitlin Brown, Hans Friedl, Jingwei Guan, Krista Dawson, Md. Mahmudur Rahman, Nicholas Myers, & Zoey Kriethe.
Dirk denison 10 Houses
Why we design how we do.
Architect and educator Dirk Denison reflects on the diverse influences that have shaped his practice over 30 years in a volume featuring 10 remarkable houses designed in a broad range of modernist vocabularies – each finely tuned to its site and occupants. Taking the form of an in-depth conversation between architect and educator Dirk Denison and journalist Fred A. Bernstein, this volume chronicles Denison’s childhood in Detroit, travels and early encounters with the arts and architecture, and his education at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the Illinois Institute of Technology, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Open Collection, Open Housing:
IIT College of Architecture Spring 2021 Studio
Redefining the relationship of art and living.
Art museums are able to display only a small percentage of their collections at any given moment. An artwork’s life before and after its exhibition often remains invisible to the public. This studio will design a space for art in parallel with housing. By developing an “open collection” - publicly visible and interactive art storage, alongside “open housing, the studio looks at the opportunities of each to engage and support a local community, along with the synergistic effects that can be produced through their integration.
Drawings by Albert Martinez (left) and Miquel Perez (right).