Gardens are being established with increasing frequency in the urban environs. Yet design basics and opportunities for inclusivity are being overlooked. To tackle this, Chicago-based S.I. participants Yael Breimer and Allie O’Neill created an approachable tool, Dream It. Grow It., that educates users about the design process, broadens definitions of “garden,” and introduces concepts of […]

Spontaneous Urbanisms examines the state of the city and some of the motivating factors for the wave of citizen-led actions to improve the public urban realm. From urban blight to uneven development, property abandonment to stalled developments, social alienation to an overly privatized public sphere, urban interventionists are asserting their “right to the city.” This […]

Los Angeles designer, educator and S.I. exhibitor James Rojas has conducted creative placemaking workshops all over the country, and this edition in Chicago will similarly engage the collective community imagination to create an interactive diorama of the city—Chicago as it could be. Participants will be provided with thousands of small, colorful, vibrant, and tactile objects […]