Chicago's Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts announced its 2015 grantees last night at an event held at its historic home, a turn-of-the-century Prairie-style mansion in the city's Gold Coast neighborhood. The foundation awarded more than $490,000 to a group of 63 researchers, filmmakers, writers and designers pursing an array of projects and proposals examining architecture's role in society. That's a pretty wide net to cast, topic-wise. Among the nearly half million dollars in grants given out, some unique stories and ideas will receive some needed funding or seed money.
Group Ludic's Visionary Urban Landscapes, 1968–1979
Researchers will create an archive of Group Ludic, the French collective known for creating innovative play environments and public workshops.
Leaving Delhi
A film exploring the life and work of Canadian architect Luc Durand, who built numerous structures in Nehru's India and designed both the Quebec Pavilion for Expo '67 and the Athletes' Housing complex for the 1976 Olympic Games.
The Experimental City: Toward a New Urban Form in the Great North Woods of Minnesota
Chad Freidrichs's film explores Athelstan Spilhaus's attempt to build a model city in Minnesota in the mid-'60s to test pollution control technology.
Living Room: Housing Works Builds Housing
This multimedia documentation project aims to create an oral history of the efforts of the Housing Works non-profit to provide supportive housing to New Yorkers with AIDS and HIV beginning in 1990.
The Negro Motorist Green Book Project: Documenting Sites of Sanctuary
This photo documentary looks at locations along Route 66 featured in The Negro Motorist Green Book, a Jim Crow-era guide for African-American travelers.
SOUPERgreen! Souped-Up Green Architecture
This new book addresses current trends in green architecture and seeks to propose more appropriate alternatives.
Seeing Sori Yanagi
This research project will bring together information on the unheralded Japanese designer Sori Yanagi, who has designed everything from furniture and flatware to subway stations and an Olympic torch.
1972–Nakagin Capsule Tower
The new photographic investigation looks at the current state of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, an experimental apartment complex built in Tokyo by the architect Kisho Kurokawa.
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