Architecture and Activism at UIC

I've always loved giving tours, and it's always fun when I'm prompted to research things from a new perspective, and last winter provided an interesting prompt indeed.

In February 2018, I had the joy of collaborating with UIC's Gallery 400 to create a walking tour of campus highlighting themes from their exhibition, Félix Candela's Concrete Shells: An Engineered Architecture for México and Chicago. Felix Candela was an architect who was exiled from Spain after the civil war and rose to prominence in mid-century Mexico City for his remarkable use of concrete in flowing "shell" forms. Amid mid 1960s protest movements, Candela refused to announce allegiance with the government, and took up a new position in Chicago's public research institution amid a radical architectural movement underway in the heart of the midwest.

Although Candela himself didn't create buildings at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the unique brutalist style was akin to his own with its emphasis on concrete, and he fit right in as an inspiration for many emerging professionals. Students inspired by Candela even built a structure in his honor on campus. But UIC was not simply a place of change for design, it was also in concert with universities around the world, like Mexico City, who saw student mobilization en masse. Students have fought for many of the services, spaces, and assets that are taken for granted today on campus, and these stories of the past can remind us to continue fighting for change today.

After exploring the exhibition and discussing with G400 curators and educators, I wrote an hour-long tour highlighting how global themes of protest and innovation intersected with UIC. Using research from an earlier campus tour project, ALTourUIC and historic images from the library archives, I presented with the engaging Megan Moran from the UIC MUSE department. We took a surprisingly large group to trudge through the snow and explore brutalist architecture at its finest, making a pit stop inside the Latino Cultural Center for hot cocoa with the Latinx architecture student organization, Arquitectos, and exploring how the legacy of design continues to impact students to this day.

"When people feel welcome, when they see themselves reflected back in a place they’re part of, it helps them identify with the space and fight for their inclusion in other ways."

If you'd like to read the whole tour, check out the G400 blog post here.