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Book Cover for: Soil Lab: A Built Experiment, Eibhlín Ní Chathasaigh

Soil Lab: A Built Experiment

Eibhlín Ní Chathasaigh

This anthology is a critical reflection on the making of Soil Lab, a project built with a community in North Lawndale, Chicago, and hosted by the Danish Arts Foundation at the 2021 edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

The pages give space to a conversation that stretches far outside both the confines of the Soil Lab's site in North Lawndale and the short duration of the biennial. The book is a meeting place for the voices which contributed to the Soil Lab project, and maps their constellation of disciplines--across architecture, art, anthropology, ecology, craft and community work--and global geographies, including the US, Denmark, Ireland, Puerto Rico and Austria. The story of the project, and the many lives and threads that it brushed up against, is told through histories, criticism, photographic essays, instruction manuals, soil recipes and interviews.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Actar
  • Publish Date: Dec 5th, 2023
  • Pages: 168
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.50in - 5.80in - 0.60in - 0.65lb
  • EAN: 9781638401063
  • Categories: RegionalMethods & MaterialsUrban & Land Use Planning

About the Author

Chathasaigh, Eibhlín Ní: - Eibhlín is a registered architect with the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. She teaches in the architecture schools at both University College Dublin and Technological University Dublin. Since graduating from the Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark, she has worked at Atelier Peter Zumthor in Switzerland and Grafton Architects in Dublin, Ireland. Eibhlín is interested in the social act of architecture and design as a collaborative conversation.
Martin, James: - "James is a registered architect with the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and Grade 3 Accredited in Architectural Conservation. He has taught at The Aarhus School of Architecture and at University College Dublin where he is currently a Design Fellow. James is interested in the act of making, and his work is informed by this collaborative act. James holds a MA from The Aarhus School of Architecture, and has also undertaken courses in joinery at Capellagården - school for craft and design. Since graduating he has worked with international studios; Sou Fujimoto Architects, Herzog & de Meuron, and Grafton Architects. In 2018, James, Eibhlín and Anne Dorte participated in REFORM Design Biennale with their collaboration Woven Construct, a seat, a screen, a space, which they constructed in the garden of Munkeruphus, north of Copenhagen."
Vester, Anne Dorthe: - Anne Dorthe is a masters graduate from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture and studied for her BA at Aarhus School of Architecture. She has a background in craft and has taken courses in fine woodwork at KTS (Copenhagen Technical College). Her work is based on the study and processing of materials. Whether large or small in scale, she seeks to unfold the inherent qualities and technical potential of materials. Craftsmanship is central to her process and to her material understanding. Her work is developed through an experimental and exploratory approach, grounded in the Danish design tradition. Anne Dorthe Vester founded her own studio with a focus on architecture and design in 2012. She cofounded MBADV with Maria Brunn, where from 2013 until 2022 they collaborated on projects at the intersection of architecture, design and fine art.
Bruun, Maria: - With her work, the Danish designer Maria Bruun joins a long-standing design tradition. With sincere respect for classic Danish furniture, Bruun builds on this foundation with an innovative approach, creating her design in close dialogue with skilled craftspeople. She often devotes her work to the refinement of the individual elements and persistently seeks out new possibilities in her field. For her collaborative methods and approach to design, Bruun was awarded the Wegner Prize in 2022, and the prestigious Danish Finn Juhl Prize in 2021. Along with Anne Dorthe Vester, Bruun is the co-founder of MBADV, a collaboration that, from 2013-2022 created objects in the cross-field between art, architecture and design. Maria Bruun holds a MA in furniture Design from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design.