2017 Chicago Architectural Biennial - Make New History
Vertical City
16 architects were invited to respond to a historic brief first proposed in 1922 for the design of the Chicago Tribune Tower.

We will not hesitate to re-do Loos’s Doric Column with our own references finding and showing what for us is "the most beautiful and distinctive office building in the world". Loos column provides a model of proportion and objectiveness and our aim is to work with its structure principles: base, shaft and capital. From this starting point, we will proceed with the improbable juxtaposition of three disparate references, collected from our beloved twentieth century architecture and from our own practice. This exercise of historical imagination will allow to bring together the representation of significant features of our contemporary society: the progressive alienation of capitalistic economy, the technical constrains and overwhelming design regulations and the need for heroic’s beliefs.

Date: 2017-2018 | Location: Chicago, United States of America | Client: 2017 Chicago Architectural Biennial | Curator: Johnston Marklee
Architecture: Patrícia Barbas Collaborators: Catarina Sousa, Guilherme Oliveira, Sérgio Catumba
Enginnering: AFAconsult | Model: Alvaro Negrello | Photography: Chicago Architecture Biennial, Paulo Catrica | Budget: N/A