The Architalk series aims to highlight how architecture both reflects and responds to critical issues around the globe, such as climate change, community building, and the development of an inclusive and barrier free society.

I-House kicked off its 2024 Architalk series with Theaster Gates, an artist, urban designer, and architect who worked to revitalize abandoned buildings and urban neighborhoods in Chicago and elsewhere through architecture and design.

In this talks titled “Theaster Gates: Crafting Black Space,” Gates discusses his placemaking practice that began with revitalizing a number of vacant old buildings in his hometown of Chicago into centers for art, as well as activities around Black space in Germany and Britain, that helped demonstrate the cultural value present in urban neighborhoods that experienced racially motivated divestment. He also talks about how the architectural spaces he creates architectural also function as works of art.

Theaster Gates(Artist, Urban Designer)
Theaster Gates founded the nonprofit Rebuild Foundation in 2009 in Chicago and has been engaged in the project of revitalizing abandoned urban buildings into cultural institutions as an art practice. He was selected to design the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion, a work that brings a new perspective to art, architecture, and social practice. He has also produced a number of “Afro-Mingei” works, his philosophy that merges the Japanese folk art movement with the aesthetics of African American art.
Photo: Rankin