During the latest COVID-19 lockdown on the 29th of June we heard from Professor David Brown via Zoom. David spoke about The Available City, the theme and focus of the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial, an urban design framework, developed through past Biennales and Biennials, that focuses on the potential of Chicago’s 10,000+ city-owned vacant lots as a landscape of collective spaces. It is an improvisational approach, informed by improvised music, that reveals a way in which collective spaces in neighborhoods can build into a new urban system. By design, it promotes a collaborative exchange between architects and community organisations and residents as the basis for collective spaces that are diverse in forms and activities and develop over time.
David’s overview of The Available City, as a biennial engaged in the making of the city, considered this relationship further along with questions regarding policy and how a changed point of view can offer new possibilities, who participates in the design of the city, improvisational organisers of the city, and the exponential impact of small elements in aggregate.
This face to face event will build on David’s lecture, and will be a cross-institute panel discussion about the themes he has raised, including on citymaking and the diverse engagement of residents and stakeholder when designing urban places.
If you did not see David’s original lecture, a recording will be made available for you to watch in advance of this panel discussion.
This event is a collaborative effort of the Australian Institute of Architects, the Planning Institute of Australia, and the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects.
We are meeting for breakfast at the gorgeous MARKIAN showroom for a Q&A panel session with representatives from each of the three professions (Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture) and cross-Institute networking to further the discussion on citymaking and diverse engagement of residents and stakeholder when designing urban places. Coffee from an award-winning local café and breakfast from a local supplier awaits the attendees at the venue. Join us for a conversation around the topic initiated by David's lecture and networking over breakfast!