IN CHICAGO
TU Delft / Archeworks, 2017
Studio: Msc2 Complex Projects
Site: Chicago
Selected for the ARGUS annual
InChicago is an academic research and design project that addresses the relationship between neighbourhood identity, urban inequality, and cultural diversity in Chicago.
Through field research, spatial analysis, and hand-drawn cartography, the project brings together multiple perspectives, narratives, and spatial layers of Garfield Park, a neighbourhood often perceived as neglected yet deeply embedded in the social and cultural fabric of the city. The hand-drawn map functions as both an analytical and speculative tool, revealing existing conditions while proposing future possibilities for the area.
The work examines how neighbourhoods contribute to the identity of a city, and how urban decline, disinvestment, and demographic change affect the communities that give cities their character. By defining Garfield Park as part of Chicago’s “mid-city” — an in-between condition whose identity is inseparable from that of the larger urban whole — the project questions what cities stand to lose when minority communities are displaced and cultural diversity diminishes.
The outcome takes the form of a large-scale hand-drawn map that combines research, storytelling, and design speculation to reimagine Garfield Park as a vital contributor to Chicago’s cultural and urban future.
Tutors: Kees Kaan, Ronald Reema.