Category: Blog

Professors Aneesha Dharwadker and Aaron Brakke met for an informal discussion about practices of architecture and teaching at the intersection with activism.

What does activism look like from the perspective of Architecture and Design? Aneesha Dharwadker and Aaron Brakke drew from their own experiences in design practice and research to provide a perspective into what design can do to address problems of social justice. For Aneesha, framing apparently intractable problems as design problems that have a spatial dimension might open new avenues for change. Using speculative design to envision an intervention that would allow prisoners access to books in Chicago is an example of this. She also discussed her recent studio called “Landscapes of Dependence” which addressed spatial aspects of the opioids epidemic. Aaron shared some of the complexities of designing for social justice, widening the spotlight to look at how people’s voices are represented in the process of design. He discussed co-creation projects in urban and rural areas in Colombia, stressing the role of people and nature and their interactions with the built environment. He also provided a context to situate the practice of Architecture in a world where the global and the local are always intertwined. He stressed the role of architecture and design in addressing issues like migration form a social justice perspective.

The talk invited students and faculty to continue these conversations within and outside the Atrium Talk Series. The discussion was hosted by the Lectures & Exhibitions Committee.

The exhibit was displayed from October 24th to November 6th in the Bogota headquarters of the Colombian Architect’s Society (SCA).

We worked together with architecture collectives and partner institutions in order to create this exhibit that showcases co-creation projects that transformed the built environment with communities that are traditionally undeserved in the city.

From parks to community gardens, the projects speak to the power of collaboration and participatory-action in community settings. Neglected communities and their architectural partners craft new ways of working together to re-imagine a city that takes care of those who need it. This exhibition was an effort to make their efforts visible and to create new partnerships.

On October 25th and 26th, architecture students, architects and community members came together in Bogota to share experiences and learn from the projects they had co-created in order to transform the built environment in cities of the global south.

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The architecture collectives and the community members that attended this colloquium have collaborated in the design and development of architectural projects with undeserved communities in cities of Colombia, India and Venezuela. This event was a forum for them to share their experiences and to reflect collectively on the methods, implications and impact of their work.

The colloquium was organized by Urbz Colombia, C-Innova, the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano and Iliad Lab at the University of Illinois, with the sypport of the Colombian Architect Society (SCA) and the Universidad Piloto de Colombia.

The event took place in the SCA local headquarters in Bogota and in the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, featuring international and national guests.

Pedro Reynolds Cuellar – Massachussets Institute of technology (MIT)Ana López Ortego – Arquitectura Expandida, Laura Sanabria – Observaorio Urbano de la Universidad de La Salle, Miguel Zambrano – Proyecto Escape en Altos de Cazucá, Hector Álvarez – Mesa – Cerros Orientales, Experiencia de Eco-barrios en Bogotá, Sebastián Trujillo – Chaal Chaal Agency, Walter López Borbón – Proyeccion Social de la Universidad Piloto de Colombia, Iván Murcia Sánchez – Huertopía, Carlos Medellín – Fundación H-orizontal del Equipo Mazzanti, Aaron Brakke – ILIAD Lab, Luca Bullaro – Transepto, Universidad Nacional de Medellín, Iván Mauricio Eraso – Proyecto Eco-Habitat, Universidad Piloto de Colombia, Janet Castañeda Campos – Comunidades en Movimiento, Bosa, Andres Sanchez – URBZ Colombia, Daniela Romero – Fase Medusa, Belkis Campos – URBZ, Experiencia Petare en Venezuela, Alejandra Villamil – C-innova, Esteban Solarte – Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano

Associate Professor of Architecture at Ball State University Kevin Klinger visited UIUC campus on October 9th to contribute as a reviewer in our Graduate Design Reviews. Klinger was the Founding Director of the Institute for Digital Fabrication at Ball State University until 2016 and he has written with dedication about the use of digital technologies in architecture and the way the can influence design.

While in campus, Klinger offered a lecture about craft through digital fabrication for graduate students in ARCH571 course.

On August 2019, ILIAD researchers and collaborators were recognized with a First Prize Award for “Integral Development of Public Space” at the Biennial for Public Space in Bogota. This was received for the work on the Zig Zag Park project, a co-created public space initiative located in the southern periphery of Bogota.  

For 5 years, ILIAD lab researchers, local community and university partners came together to undertake a Participatory Action Research project. The project involved design research, crowd-funding, education in construction and construction of the physical space. This long–term collaboration was recognized by the Architectural Association of Colombia, the Mayor of Bogota and the jurors of the Biennial of Public Space at the Virgilio Barco Library designed by the world renowned architect, the late Rogelio Salmona.

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