Living Tracks Studio
LA-546/ARCH-546 - Spring 2020
Instructors
Maurice Cox
Chicago Commissioner of Planning and Development
Maria Villalobos
Assistant Professor - PhD in Landscape Sciences and Techniques
This studio launches the collaboration between the Chicago Department of Planning and Development and IIllinois Institute of Technology in the context of the recently launched INVEST South/West community improvement initiative from Mayor Lori Lightfoot. With a focus on two existing former right-of-ways on the South Side of the city, the studio explores research questions related to the reuse of abandoned neighborhood infrastructure and their urban history.
Proposed designs articulate key design principles toward new transformative public spaces; living neighborhood structures; and educational, natural, and cultural relationships in the urban landscape. The two lines are approximately two miles long each and elevated on natural berms and constructed retaining walls, giving the project area a strong sectional quality.
Both elevated lines have a variety of vacant land parcels and offer an opportunity for an innovative performative urban landscape where urban development, cultural and natural preservation, climate change adaptation, and economic opportunity work together. All sites along these lines host historic industrial urban fabric along their length and bring to the table questions of memory, space adaptation, sustainable production practices, and resilience.
The studio brings together participants from all bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. programs at the College of Architecture and offers them multiple opportunities to engage with these communities in workshops organized by the DPD.
The Master of Landscape Architecture + Urbanism degree at Illinois Institute of Technology is Chicago’s only accredited landscape architecture program. It is a fundamentally progressive urban enterprise based on three defining principles: the equitable global growth of our urban centers, robust transdisciplinary collaboration, and the advancement of urban landscape theory in research and practice. With Chicago as our laboratory, we invest in making greener, healthier, more equitable, and more beautiful cities through creative inquiry and innovative technological ideation.
Proposed designs articulate key design principles toward new transformative public spaces; living neighborhood structures; and educational, natural, and cultural relationships in the urban landscape. The two lines are approximately two miles long each and elevated on natural berms and constructed retaining walls, giving the project area a strong sectional quality.
Both elevated lines have a variety of vacant land parcels and offer an opportunity for an innovative performative urban landscape where urban development, cultural and natural preservation, climate change adaptation, and economic opportunity work together. All sites along these lines host historic industrial urban fabric along their length and bring to the table questions of memory, space adaptation, sustainable production practices, and resilience.
The studio brings together participants from all bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. programs at the College of Architecture and offers them multiple opportunities to engage with these communities in workshops organized by the DPD.
The Master of Landscape Architecture + Urbanism degree at Illinois Institute of Technology is Chicago’s only accredited landscape architecture program. It is a fundamentally progressive urban enterprise based on three defining principles: the equitable global growth of our urban centers, robust transdisciplinary collaboration, and the advancement of urban landscape theory in research and practice. With Chicago as our laboratory, we invest in making greener, healthier, more equitable, and more beautiful cities through creative inquiry and innovative technological ideation.
Students: Seong Cheol Kim| Diamantina Sanchez | Tao Xu | Olaoluwapo Odukoya | Yichen Qian| Alexis Arias Betancourt | Migel Santos | Anwar Aluqbi
