An in-depth look at the Lakefront Kiosk Competition Winner and three kiosks jointly designed by Chicago architecture students and world-renowned firms
The shoreline of Lake Michigan has always played a central role in Chicago’s urban identity. During the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, architect Daniel Burnham sought to incorporate the lake into the fairgrounds, and his 1909 Plan for Chicago proposed to reclaim the entire length of the lakefront as a place of leisure for all inhabitants of the city — an idea realized during the 20th century. Today, the lakefront is a celebrated and heavily used public space that is a major destination for both visitors and local residents.
The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial promises to make a lasting impact on the city of Chicago through the commissioning of several new permanent structures for the city’s shoreline. Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently unveiled designs for four lakefront kiosks to be built and opened to the public on the occasion of the Biennial, a first for an event of this kind.
One kiosk design was decided through an international competition organized in partnership with the Chicago Park District and the City of Chicago. Juried by acclaimed architects David Adjaye (Adjaye Associates), Jeanne Gang (Studio Gang), and Sharon Johnston (Johnston Marklee), along with Biennial Artistic Directors Joseph Grima and Sarah Herda, the Lakefront Kiosk Competition attracted 421 entries from 40 different countries. A selection of these entries can be seen on the Chicago Architecture Biennial Pinterest.
Ultimately, the Jury awarded the top BP Prize to the Rhode Island-based Ultramoderne for their “Chicago Horizon” proposal. The Prize includes a $10,000 honorarium and a $75,000 budget to realize the design.
The Chicago Architecture Biennial commissioned three more pavilions that invited talented up-and-coming designers from Chicago and around the world to collaborate with students at the three major architecture schools in the city. As Architizer notes, “One of the most exciting things in Chicago — and part of what is fueling the momentum of the Biennial — is the schools there,” which are “thriving under strong leadership that has attracted some of the top design talent in the United States and the world.” Supporting this position, Kunlé Adeyemi of the Lagos and Amsterdam-based NLÉ Works worked with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chilean duo Pezo von Ellrichshausen paired with the Illinois Institute of Technology, and Chicago firms Paul Preissner Architects and Independent Architecture collaborated with the University of Illinois, Chicago.
In recognition of the strength of the proposals submitted to the competition, the jury also named three finalists and honorable mentions for entries that presented exciting new visions for shared urban spaces. Below, we take a more detailed look at the winning competition design, the school kiosks, and other recognized entries.
The Rhode Island-based team stood out among 421 entries with a proposal for an ultra-sustainable and low-cost flat-roofed structure for the lakefront
“Chicago Horizon” takes cues from modernist masterpieces as well as the land art movement, which is a constant inspiration for the winning team. Based in Providence, Rhode Island, Ultramoderne is composed of Yasmin Vobis and Aaron Forrest, who collaborated with structural engineer Brett Schneider. The Kiosk will be on display in Millennium Park during the Biennial and installed permanently at Queen’s Landing, across from Buckingham Fountain.
“We were excited to see a team use the opportunity of the kiosk to create a generous public space that could facilitate programs and catalyze new activities on the lakefront,” said Sarah Herda, an artistic director of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Ultramoderne’s objective was to forgo flashy detail and instead to “create the largest wood roof possible — to demarcate a zone of the city for all to enjoy.” The design echoes the flat horizon of Lake Michigan while hearkening back to the legacy of Mies Van der Rohe’s iconic works in Chicago.
The team also cites the film Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames — part of which was filmed on the Chicago lakefront.“We like the flatness and rationalism of Mies and some of the flexibility of the Eameses,” team member Yasmin Vobis told Dezeen.
“Chicago Horizon” is aggressively economical, and its designers deliberately prioritized public space above the need for a splashy aesthetic statement. As the Architect’s Newspaper notes, their pavilion “uses cross-laminated timber, a new lumber product that some structural engineers call carbon-negative for its ability to displace virgin steel and concrete while sequester the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide during its growth.”
The kiosk will contain a small lending library with architectural books, topped by a large, flat roof made of cross-laminated timber covered in a layer of gravel to protect it from Chicago’s strong lakefront winds. Visitors to the viewing platform will stand at chin-height with the roofline and events like book talks and panel discussions will be held underneath.
The BP Prize-winning design was received enthusiastically on social media: among others, fellow Biennial participants Studio Gang and David Neustein of Otherothers tweeted to congratulate the winners.
Several up-and-coming international design firms are pairing with Chicago architecture schools to design three new pavilions for the Chicago lakefront
The three school kiosks represent an unprecedented push in the United States to invigorate Chicago’s architectural scene with new ideas from home and abroad. For a generation of students and up-and-coming designers, the collaborative design process offered the chance to work together on a full-scale design-build process with for the best clients a designer could ask for — the people of Chicago.
“The kiosks that are out there now are nothing to celebrate,” said Bob Rejman of the Chicago Park District in the Chicago Tribune. “Over time, we could replace the sort of ramshackle nature of the ones that are out there with significant little pieces of art.”
Michael Kelly, CEO of the Chicago Park District, told Dezeen “Even modest contributions at the scale of these new kiosks can significantly enhance cultural life on the lakefront,”
The school kiosks will be installed at Montrose Beach, North Avenue Beach, and Harold Washington Playlot Park, where Chicagoans and visitors alike will be able to take advantage of the kiosks’ shade, amenities, and charm.
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects — which engages with design at all scales, from body to environment — has partnered with NLÉ, led by Kunlé Adeyemi, an architect, designer and urbanist with a track record of conceiving and completing high-profile projects internationally. His recent work includes the ‘Makoko Floating School’, an innovative, floating structure prototype located on the lagoon heart of Nigeria’s largest city. Based in Amsterdam and Lagos, Adeyemi’s research focuses on providing sustainable solutions for Africa and other developing regions.
Through their collaboration, Adeyemi and SAIC have produced “Rock,” a pop-up pavilion composed from the raw and historic limestone blocks that once protected the city’s shoreline. Sited at Montrose Beach, the kiosk is conceived as an “infrastructure box” consisting of materials and technologies that are found at or belong to the local environment. The composition’s resilient limestone and concrete elements can be uniquely assembled each time to suit different locations, vendors and uses along the lakefront: by providing shelter while contributing to the shoreline protection.
The Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture, a school that explores the role of architecture, urbanism and landscape within the global conditions of the 21st century, have collaborated with the Chilean firm Pezo von Ellrichshausen. Founding partners Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen were curators of the Chilean Pavilion at the 2008 Venice Biennale, and their work has been widely published and has been featured in exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Biennial of the Americas, and the Museum of Modern Art.
With IIT, the architects have proposed “The Cent Pavilion,” a forty-foot tower meant to convey silent and convoluted simplicity. It repeats the same angled design over and over, resulting in an opaque monolith. According to the architects, when its commercial function ceases at the summer’s end, the kiosk will complement the verticality of Chicago’s iconic skyline year-round.
Paul Andersen of Indie Architecture and Paul Preissner of Chicago-based Paul Preissner Architects collaborated with the School of Architecture at UIC, a institution energized by an environment that enjoys animated polemics and debate. Andersen’s Indie Architecture explores new ways of disseminating architectural and urban ideas, while Preissner’s projects draw on academia, architecture and art, to produce innovative and accessible projects. Andersen and Preissner have previously collaborated on the large-scale temporary installation “Two Barns” at the 2013 Biennial of the Americas in Denver.
Together, the architects and UIC have proposed “Summer Vault,” a lakefront kiosk meant to dynamically accommodate a number of programs. It consists of basic geometric shapes — a 12-foot diameter barrel vault, a parallelogram, triangles — combined to create a curious, freestanding hangout within the park. The interior of the skewed vault is divided into two triangular spaces — one enclosed by expanded metal screens and doors, and one open to the air but still within the vaulting. This two part plan allows for commerce and community to occur simultaneously.
Six finalists and honorable mentions were selected among the competition entries for the strength and conceptual brilliance of their designs
Out of the 421 innovative proposals the Lakefront Kiosk Competition attracted, the jury named three Finalists and awarded three Honorable Mentions.
Architect Magazine published an in-depth look at one of the Finalist designs, “Behind the Curtain,” by Thomas Kelley, Ryan Palider, and Charles Paros. According to the architects, the proposal aims to present itself in a manner that tries to conceal rather than embelish its monumentality, iconicity, and symbolism. “Like a small child’s not-so-inconspicuous hiding spot,” the project is intent on “concealing itself poorly.” Indeed, the kiosk’s attenuated cylindrical form, composed of a simple base and frame, is simply obscured with a thinly-meshed veil. “Only after peeling back this veil, now a curtain, does the project reveal its function. Alas, it is simply a kiosk. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Singapore-based Lekker were also named Finalists for their design, a shingled farmhouse form that morphs into an open archway, inviting passersby to take advantage of a cozy interior space. Lekker stated that the proposal attempts to express Chicago’s “unlikeliness: that chutzpah, the strange emergence of something intricate and sophisticated in a hostile environment.” The form and materials also simultaneously invoke the earliest versions of the Chicago Prairie home, some of Chicago’s most iconic postmodern moments, and the Chicago tradition of finding playful expression in “bad” or “wrong” materials. More details and images accompany a story on the project in Architect Magazine.
TRU Architects of Berlin earned a spot among the Finalists with a simple, translucent roof structure that shades a patio and provides room for relaxation and events. Featured in Architect Magazine, the proposal featured a latticework canopy that would emanate a soft light at night. Notably, the entire construction is built of ordinary squared timber battens, which are recycled through the process of building. The kiosk is conceived as a low-cost building that shows the constructive potential and beauty of timber structures, along with providing an example of material-saving and ecologically worthwhile building methods.
The Honorable Mentions were Sydney-based architect Guillaume Mazars; fala atelier, a young firm based in Porto, Portugal; and Berlin architects kollektiv-a.
Mazars’ entry “Ambient Light,” featured in Designboom, aims to highlight the unique ambience of the waterfront, where sky meets earth and the horizon is exposed and illuminated. The kiosk, using lightweight materials, steel tubes, and fabric cables, forms a circle of translucent fabric that diffuses light, delimits space, and generates privacy. Inside, a suspended fabric ring provides shade while the center is open to expose the sky.
fala atelier focuses on the production of small-scale architecture and rhetorical competition proposals. In the words of the architects, their entry, the “little kiosk artistically considered,” is an architectural assemblage. “It is flexible enough to suit most cultural and commercial programs but always retains the same architectural expression: the protection of a warm timber roof, the efficiency and luminosity of a glass box, the spatial punctuation brought by an arbitrary column. All its elements correspond in a loose and playful way. The kiosk refuses both architectural abstraction and easy categorization.”
Based in Berlin, the kollektiv-a team works under the motto “Architecture needs Poesie.” Their proposal draws from the idea of the wall, a fascination that starts with ancient ruins and temples — objects that are destroyed, but which still live in our memories. The kiosk forms a long, black wall that separates two worlds — the hectic, crowded streets and the tranquil sea. “Here, separated and far away from the routines and nuisances of daily life,” the architects note, “the wilderness of the ocean becomes a fenced garden.”
“The City of Chicago is the place where modern architecture was born — and this exhibition will help us build on our tradition by showcasing ideas that match our city’s ambition and aspiration,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “Through this collection of projects, Chicago will continue leading the way when it comes to showing how cities can think in different ways to create, design and build the great cities of tomorrow.”
See more of the coverage below:
Archdaily: “Chicago Architecture Biennial Announces Lakefront Kiosk Winners”
Archinect: “Team Ultramoderne’s “Chicago Horizon” wins Chicago Lakefront Kiosk competition”
Architect: “Behind the Curtain”
Architizer: “Why the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s Kiosks Will be CHI-IL As Heck”
Artforum: “Winner of Chicago Architecture Biennial’s Lakefront Kiosk Competition Announced”
Bustler: “Team Ultramoderne wins top prize for Chicago Lakefront Kiosk competition”
Chicago Tonight: “The State of the Art of Architecture in Chicago”
Chicago Tribune: “Chicago Architecture Biennial to bring ministructures along the lakefront”
Curbed: “Chicago Lakefront Kiosks Bringing Pop-Up Architecture to the City This Fall”
Designboom: “Guillaume Mazars’ Ambient Light Chicago Lakefront Kiosk Proposal”
Divisare: “Chicago Horizon: Chicago Architecture Biennial Lakefront Kiosk — Winning Project”
Dezeen: “Ultramoderne wins competition to design lakefront kiosk for Chicago Architecture Biennial”
Dezeen: “Architects team up with universities to design kiosks for Chicago Architecture Biennial”
DNAinfo: “Lakefront Kiosks Coming to Grant Park, Montrose Beach, Hyde Park”
Wallpaper: “Perma-pavilions: Chicago Architecture Biennial to transform waterfront kiosks”
