It was a pleasure to work on a project for the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial! Check out the results of our close collaboration with Soil Lab North Lawndale, an innovative, site-specific installation sponsored by the Danish Arts Foundation in conjunction with the Biennial.
The 2021 edition, titled “The Available City“, brings attention and collaborative community projects to some of the 10,000 city-owned vacant lots scattered around Chicago. Over the past few weeks, SOIL LAB has literally been built from the ground up on one of these sites! Working on a base of earthen-brown waters truck masonry we provided from Morin Brick, North Lawndale residents worked alongside the international artists to build rammed earth walls surrounding their new workshop space.
Conveniently located around the corner from our brickyard at 1310 S. Pulaski, a robust schedule of public events took place over several months. Visitors even engaged with the brickmaking process — we managed to get ahold of Morin’s raw clay for them, which will be fired in an onsite kiln obtained with help from Sandkuhl. Inspired by the naturalist philosophy of Chicago’s illustrious landscape architect Jens Jensen (a Danish immigrant), the project is centered around the importance of brick and organic materials to our two cultures.
See more information about the project on their website or Instagram.
Read more about the project on the Biennial’s website.
