Every year many of Chicago’s most intriguing architecture and design events and lectures are organized by MAS Context. The not-for-profit publication puts together panel discussions, lectures, and screenings, often hosted in some of the city’s most unique architectural spaces. MAS has recently announced its fall series of events with the promise of more to come as speakers commit.
“The events are an opportunity to expand on topics we feel are important and deserve further conversation. Quality of life, the impact of the economy on the built environment, or architectural legacies are some of those topics,” explained Iker Gil, founder and editor of MAS Context to The Architect’s Newspaper, “and we are thrilled to be able to explore them as panel discussions, intimate presentations, book launches, and film screenings, amongst other formats.”
The first of this fall’s events will take place September 15th with a presentation by Matthias Hollwich, co-founder and principal of Hollwich Kushner, and Wojtek Jan Chodzko-Zajko, Ph.D., head of the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Hollwich and Chodzko-Zajko will be discussing their research regarding aging. In Hollwich’s latest book, New Aging—with colorful illustrations by Bruce Mau—explores aging with grace and the spaces associated with growing old. The lecture will be held at the hauntingly beautiful International Museum of Surgical Science, with support from the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH).
Later in the month MAS will hold a screening of Unfinished Spaces, a film that documents the unfinished Cuban National Art Schools, commissioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Winner of the Soceity of Architectural Historians (SAH) Award for Film and Video, the film will be shown at the Instituto Cervantes of Chicago on September 29th, with support from the SAH.
On October 25th, Christopher Marcinkoski, Rome Prize Fellow and director of PORT Urbanism, will discuss his latest book The City That Never Was, and his current research, Africa 2040: An Atlas of Speculative Urbanization. Macinkoski examines radical urbanization, speculative landscapes, and the motivations behind them. His lecture will look at “when urbanization activities become wildly out of sync with economic and demographic realities.” The lecture will be another collaboration with the Society of Architectural Historians and will be held at the historic Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Charnley Persky-House.
As with its events, the publication MAS Context covers a diverse set of issues and topics, from urbanism to landscapes and architecture to graphics. Between the events and the publication, Gil and MAS Context are working on no less than establishing a larger dialogue in Chicago. “We want to create thoughtful and engaging events as well as facilitate opportunities for people to come together to share their expertise and learn from other points of view. It is our contribution to establish Chicago as a place for thoughtful discussions.”
For more on MAS Context, visit their website.
