MAS Context is a quarterly journal that addresses issues that affect the urban context. Each issue delivers a comprehensive and critical view of a single topic through the active participation of people from different fields and different perspectives who, together, instigate the debate over urban issues that affect the way we live and design. MAS Context shares the most remarkable design ideas and work with the public. It is produced by designers for people interested in the future of the place where they live. It embraces collaboration, explores new formats of distribution, and thinks in a critical way about the issues that affect how we live. And at the same time, it works to generate a collaborative culture of design in the city where it is produced, Chicago.

Iker Gil is an architect and director of MAS Studio, a collaborative architecture and urban design firm. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief of the design journal MAS Context. Gil is the editor of the book Shanghai Transforming (Actar Publishers), and the curator of the exhibitions Shanghai Transforming and Synchronizing Geometry, as well as cocurator of Inside Marina City. His works have been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the MCA Chicago, the 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale, and the Istanbul Design Biennial, among others. He is the recipient of the 2010 Emerging Visions Award from the Chicago Architectural Club, as well as grant support from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and Casa Asia. Gil is licensed as an architect in Spain and obtained his MArch at UIC. He is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Barcelona.

Andrew Clark, contributing editor, is the director of Bruce Mau Design, Los Angeles. He is focused on building a talented studio working on brand, visual identity, communications, and environmental projects. Currently, he and the design team are driving the brand design and touchpoints for Sonos. Prior to Bruce Mau Design, he was an experience designer at MNML, focusing on brand and communication design for clients, start-ups, and entrepreneurial projects. He also was art director for all brand touchpoints, including packaging, web, and social communications for MNML's self-started brand LUNATIK. He previously worked at Bruce Mau Design in Toronto and Chicago.

Julie Michiels, contributing editor, is a licensed architect at Perkins + Will, and works in their interiors department. She is also a collaborator at the design office MAS Studio, where she has participated in award-winning entries to international competitions such as Cut. Join. Play, which will be exhibited in the official US Pavilion at the 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale and Festival in Barcelona.

Michelle Benoit, contributing editor, is a designer and researcher interested in exploring the intersections between architectural history and current architectural practice. Recent projects include working in rural Rwanda with MASS Design Group, and investigating urban redevelopment programs in Istanbul. She especially enjoys discovering the personal aspect of architecture, through documenting buildings and the people who inhabit them.

Thirst, art direction and design, is a Chicago-based communication design practice. Its principal designers are Rick Valicenti, John Pobojewski, and Bud Rodecker. They work with design, cultural, and civic communities. They engage in a process of discovery and experimentation, focusing on concept, craft, and artful investigation. Their work lives at the threshold between art and science, resulting in keepsake artifacts and unique experiences. Thirst believes design is integral to the human condition. It is ubiquitous, nourishing, and transformative. Design allows us to connect with one another and compels us to slow down and pay attention.

The mission of MAS Context, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 2011 and based in Chicago, is to advance the fields of architecture and design through the dissemination and sharing of ideas from different disciplines to address in a critical way specific issues of our built environment. It does so through a quarterly publication, as well as a series of public lectures and events.