Barozzi Veiga

Barcelona, Spain

BIENNIAL PROJECT

Chicago

We always work with what we find in a place. We are interested in architecture that strikes a balance between the specificity and authenticity of the site and the autonomy of form. We seek an architecture that aspires to confer dignity, identity, and a sense of belonging to places of civic community life through an autonomous, primal approach that can transcend the point in time at which it emerges; it would establish a temporal link between past, present, and future. Our proposal for the Chicago Tribune Tower aspires to establish an intimate relationship with the context in which the building is to be integrated. The project formulates an intersection between different periods of time, techniques, and visions of the specific place. It is a piece of architecture that is simultaneously specific and autonomous: capable of preserving and reviving the richness of Chicago’s tradition and history. Inspired by the terra cotta style, the project is a pure cubic form, which is characterized by a static structural geometric grid that becomes a continuous ornament.

The repetitive nature of the structure creates a clear modular organization in order to maintain the integrity of all parts of the project, thereby underlining their individuality and unified whole. It is a certain intimate reflection that absorbs all of the small aspects of the surrounding context. What results is a simple, pure building which proposes continuity and transformation of the tradition that has marked the identity of Chicago.

BIO

Barozzi / Veiga is an architectural office devoted to architecture and urbanism, founded in 2004 in Barcelona by Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga. Barozzi / Veiga has won numerous prizes in national and international competitions, among them the refurbishment of the Palace Santa Clara in Úbeda, the Auditorium of Águilas, the Headquarter for the D.O. Ribera del Duero in Roa, the Philharmonic Hall in Szczecin, the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne, the extension of the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Chur, the Music School in Brunico, the Tanzhaus in Zürich, and the housing projects in Bergamo and Badalona. The work of Barozzi / Veiga has been presented in different exhibitions and published in a wide range of specialized literature. Barozzi / Veiga has won many international awards and citations for design excellence, among them the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2015.

Estudio Barozzi Veiga, Arts Museum, Chur, Switzerland; Photo: Simon Menges