Press & Publications

Chicago (CNN)The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial opened in the Windy City this weekend, claiming the distinction of the largest exhibition of contemporary architecture in North America.120 participating architectural firms from more than 30 countries will present 93 exhibits until 3 January, aiming to show how architecture can “radically transform our lived experience.”

occurring at the inaugural chicago architecture biennial, architecture, design and urbanism practice NLÉ, led by kunlé adeyemi has created ‘rock & the bean’- an installation sited right at the heart of the city’s renowned millennium park. working with the school of the art institute of chicaco (SAIC), the installation is connected to SAIC and NLÉ’s co-creation of the chicago lakefront kiosk ‘ROCK’.

Preview of the First Chicago Architecture Biennial Cutting-edge architecture built by a robot, spiders and even you! That’s just a small part of what you can experience when the Chicago Architecture Biennial opens Saturday at the Chicago Cultural Center and sites around the city. Geoffrey Baer has spent the last two days watching 75 top… Continue reading CHICAGO TONIGHT – OCTOBER 2015

DOWNTOWN — The mayor touted the opening Thursday of the Chicago Architecture Biennial as “the largest international survey of contemporary architecture in North America.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel made the announcement at the Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Blvd., which will serve as focal point of the exposition, technically running from Saturday through Jan. 3.

Michelle T. Boone, commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, called it a “global exposition of contemporary architecture.” It showcases the work of more than 100 architects from more than 30 countries.

SAIC has teamed up with Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi, who joined the school as a visiting faculty member in summer 2015. Adeyemi is a leading researcher of the growth of urban communities in developing countries and owner of urban design firm NLÉ in Amsterdam. He will lecture as part of SAIC’s Visiting Artists Program on October 5.

In Africa, Lagos is not the only coastal city that is vulnerable to rising seas, there are at least 20 cities, including Cairo, Egypt; Cape Town, South Africa; and Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. With man’s constant struggle to live with water, Nlé, a collaborative architectural practice with a focus on developing cities, is changing the discourse through The African Water Cities project. The project is a research and documentation project that focuses on adapting coastal cities to the impact of urbanisation, resource shortages and climate change. To date the project has moved away from just research and documentation to also architectural forms. These have been realised in the award winning Makoko Floating School in Lagos, Nigeria and more recently the Chicoco Radio in Port Harcourt, Nigeria and the Chicago Lakefront Kiosk, USA.

From Frank O. Gehry’s shining Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris to Zaha Hadid’s curving Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, take a global tour through the architectural practice emerging today, and defining tomorrow. The best-selling series of Architecture Now! celebrates its tenth edition with more than 70 international projects arranged in a neat new format.

From the 4,600-year-old pyramid of Zoser to the under-construction one kilometre-high Kingdom Tower – via the first London semi, Beijing’s old stock exchange and LA’s stacked freeway interchange – these 50 structures tell unique stories of our urban history

So your city is about to double in size, and it’s happening whether you like it or not. Infrastructure will be strained, sanitation is a concern and children need educating.

What do you do?

For Lagos, this is the question on many experts’ lips; a headache already 17.9 million people large and due to increase twofold by 2050 according to some predictions.