Architects design and build, but they also write, draw, exhibit, lecture and teach. They design buildings but they also design cities, furniture, interiors, landscapes and infrastructures. And today, architects, by necessity, operate in the realm of digital media.
Stan Allen’s lecture, Buildings and Books, is an overview of three decades of practice, seen through the lens of drawing, designing, building, and making books: the parallel cultures of photography, graphic design and writing.
On the occasion of the current 2025 Chicago Architecture Biennial and the exhibition Building with Writing—curated by Michael Meredith, designed by MOS (Hilary Sample and Michael Meredith) and on view at the Graham Foundation—it seems timely to revisit the role of the architect as writer alongside designer, a maker of books as much as of buildings.
The lecture will be followed by a conversation with Professor Bob Somol.
Free and open to all.
2.24—5:30 pm
Room 1100 A+DS
845 W Harrison Street
Chicago, Illinois
Image credit: Building with Writing, Stan Allen Architect. Exhibition Design by Michael Meredith. Graham Foundation, 2025 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Photo by Scott Benedict. Courtesy of Stan Allen.