Filter Island, positioned between the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, Chicago

UrbanLab will present their new Graham funded book, Bowling: Water, Architecture, Urbanism, which investigates the symbiotic relationships between architectures of quality and infrastructures of quantity in Chicago, New York, and the Sun Belt. The book is a conjecture of what a comprehensible city could be to combat (real and predicted) natural crises—through design-based analysis and experimentation.

UrbanLab is an architecture and urban design office cofounded by Sarah Dunn and Martin Felsen. The practice blends design and research to produce uniquely progressive, site-specific projects, resulting in a new aesthetic for environmentally resilient architecture, landscapes, and public space. The office’s realized projects range in scale from small houses to urban districts.

Sarah Dunn received her BA from Columbia College and her MArch from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. Dunn is a partner in the architecture and urban design firm UrbanLab in Chicago. UrbanLab won the AIA College of Fellows Latrobe Prize (2009), was selected as an Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York (2010), and exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2012) and the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2015). Dunn is also an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Martin Felsen received his BArch from Virginia Tech and his MS from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. Felsen is a licensed architect and a partner in the architecture and urban design firm UrbanLab in Chicago. Felsen is an associate professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, College of Architecture. Felsen serves on the Board of Places Journal Foundation, the Board of Archeworks, and the Editorial Advisory Board of The Architect's Newspaper.

Related Graham Foundation supported project:
2014 Publication Grant to Sarah Dunn & Martin Felsen Bowling: Water, Architecture, Urbanism