Architecture students exhibit at 2020 Chicago Architecture Biennial

This week, students of Luke Joyner’s “Imagining Chicago’s Common Buildings” fall course are displaying their final projects in the Biennial Pin-Up Space at the 2020 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Taking Chicago’s common residential buildings (and their history and residents) as a starting point, the course culminated in five designs for infill housing projects in Back of the Yards on Chicago’s South Side. Keeping the Chicago spirit of inquiry in mind, these projects intentionally try to offer as much socially as they do aesthetically, to contribute to the broader conversation about medium-scale housing in our city and our time. The exhibition runs from December 26, 2019 through January 5, 2020 at the Chicago Cultural Center.

After visiting Back of the Yards early in the quarter, students split up into groups of three to design housing for at least 15 people on an infill site of their choice. Each group chose a different social focus for their building, researching the neighborhood and the site (including its historical uses and current zoning) as they developed their design ideas. At the end of the course, the students welcomed Jack Schroeder (Landon Bone Baker Architects), Maya Dukmasova (Chicago Reader housing writer), Jesse Iniguez (Back of the Yards Coffee House owner and lifelong neighborhood resident) and Lauren McPhillips (Chicago Architecture Biennial) to a final critique to discuss the projects and offer feedback. For more information about this work or class, please contact Luke Joyner at lukejoy@uchicago.edu.