Join us for a talk by urban designer Emmanuel Pratt, recently named a 2019 MacArthur Fellow, as he discusses his approach to growing historically redlined neighborhoods through community-driven initiatives and shares current and upcoming projects.

Emmanuel Pratt is cofounder and executive director of the Sweet Water Foundation. His work explores architecture, urbanization, race, identity, gentrification, art and social praxis, and transformative processes of community economic development through intersections of food security and sustainable design innovation. He was a Loeb Fellow, Charles Moore Visiting Lecturer at Taubman College or Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, and is currently a visiting lecturer for Environmental and Urban Studies at the University of Chicago.

Sweet Water Foundation practices regenerative neighborhood development, a creative social justice method, that creates safe and inspiring spaces by establishing healthy, intergenerational communities that transform the ecology of once-“blighted” neighborhoods. The Foundation utilizes a blend of urban agriculture, art, and education to transform vacant spaces and abandoned buildings into economically and ecologically productive and sustainable community assets that produce engaged youth, skilled workers, art, locally-grown food, and affordable housing. These principles are realized in the flagship Foundation project, the Perry Avenue Commons, encompassing approximately three acres on the South Side of Chicago.

Image: Re-Root + Redux, Perry Ave Commons,  Sweet Water Foundation, Chicago, IL. Presented in conjunction with the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial.

For more information on the exhibition, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio: Unraveling Modern Living, click here.