Lecture Exhibition Virtual

Investigating Richard Nickel’s Photographs To Design a House for the Future

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Richard Nickel’s photographs endure as an archive of Adler & Sullivan’s architecture, much of which was lost in the 1950s and 1960 to the forces of urban renewal. For the interdisciplinary experimental design collective, Riff Studio, Nickel’s photographs—along with other archival material—were a bridge to understanding the history of displacement in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. The photographs are a crucial part of the ongoing project, “Architecture of Reparations,” which began as Isabel Strauss’s master’s thesis, and evolved to incorporate the work of nearly 30 designers at the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial. The project was a call for proposals to imagine new futures for Bronzeville that honor its history and beauty and confront vacancy, displacement, and disinvestment. The submitted proposals were studied for a project called ‘Case Study House’ which involves designing and building one row house in Chicago to serve as a model for community redevelopment in Black and Brown neighborhoods.

You’ll hear about ‘Case Study House’ and how Nickel’s imagery not only illustrates the story behind the IIT campus expansion and Chicago’s urban renewal program, but has also inspired Riff Studio to reimagine Sullivan’s architectural ornament in a 21st century context.

All ticketholders will receive a link to a recording of the program.

About the Speakers:

Riff Studio: Our practice is a process of riffing. Each of us brings a background outside of traditional design practice: building construction, historical research, and architectural pedagogy, respectively. Our designs are riffs produced from dialogues between these distinct realms, as we contemplate the future of housing. Within Riff, we leverage the technical knowledge and skills garnered through set building, furniture making, digital fabrication, and construction management. Riff Studio was formally incorporated in 2021, amidst a nationwide reexamination of pre-pandemic housing paradigms.

Rekha Auguste-Nelson is a designer of protective housing, encompassing secret compartments, hidden rooms, and escape mechanisms. She received a Master of Architecture I with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2018. Auguste-Nelson was a Dean’s Merit Scholar and recipient of the Alpha Rho Chi Medal. Trained in furniture-making at the North Bennet Street School, she served as head technical assistant of the GSD fabrication lab from 2016 to 2018. Auguste-Nelson received a Bachelor of Arts in history with honors from Harvard College in 2013. She is currently a project superintendent at Consigli Construction Co., Inc. Auguste-Nelson is from New York City.

Farnoosh Rafaie is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture and a practicing designer in Los Angeles. A native Californian, she retains an innate interest in exploring an architecture of unique and peculiar congeries of everyday suburbia from remarkable to unremarkable ways of living. She received her Bachelor of Architecture from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with honors and a master’s from the Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) with distinction. Rafaie is from Los Angeles.

Isabel Strauss is currently a curatorial assistant at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. She was part of the inaugural class of Space and Society Fellows at MASS Design Group in 2021. That same year she received Harvard GSD’s Clifford Wong Prize in Housing and was selected for the Harvard Irving Innovation Fellowship. Strauss contributed to the Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Project from 2020 to 2021 and worked to establish the African American Design Nexus with the Frances Loeb Library in 2017. Prior to her time at the GSD, Strauss worked at the Whitney Museum of American Art in Registration and Collections Management. Strauss holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and received her A.B. in the History of Art and Architecture from Harvard College. Her work was recently exhibited at the Graham Foundation Madlener House, EXPO Chicago, the Weinberg /Newton gallery, and Arc en Rêve Centre d’Architecture.

Image credits: Richard Nickel Archive, Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives, Art Institute of Chicago; Riff Studio