The Available City
Vision
The 2021 edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, titled The Available City and curated by designer, researcher, and educator David Brown, explored the impact of collective space in cities and examined who gets to participate in the design of the city. Through a reinvented and responsive global platform, this fourth edition marked a shift in the biennial model—from a traditional exhibition format to deeper engagement with local communities—creating opportunities for dialogue around architecture’s intersection with critical issues such as health, sustainability, equity, and racial justice. The Available City highlighted the potential of more than 10,000 city-owned vacant lots, concentrated on the South and West Sides of Chicago, as sites for community-driven design and engagement. It illuminated new possibilities for urban space, underscored the exponential impact of small interventions in aggregate, and celebrated improvisational forms of city-making that emerge through collaborative, policy-responsive approaches.
Participants included: Ana Miljački; Atelier Bow-Wow; atelier masōmī; Borderless Studio; Central Park Theater Restoration Committee; Christophe Hutin Architecture; Departamento del Distrito; Drawing Architecture Studio; Alexander Eisenschmidt; El Cielo; Englewood Nature Trail; Enlace Arquitectura + Ciudad Laboratorio; fala; JIMA Studio; Gensler (Stone Soup Group); Stefan Gruber; Hood Design Studio; Jill Desimini; Elleza Kelley; Matri-Archi(tecture); Manuel Herz Architects; Open Architecture Chicago + Under the Grid; Outpost Office; Plan Común; Port; ProjectHOOD; Rayna Razmilic; Riff Studio; sekou cooke STUDIO; SHAU; Soil Lab; studioAPT; Studio Barnes with Shawhin Roudbari and MAS Context; Studio Ossidiana; The Bittertang Farm; THE OPEN WORKSHOP; Craig Wilkins; and Urban American City.
