Kwong Von Glinow's housing innovations for Chicago get the spotlight at MAS Context

The award-winning housing work of Kwong Von Glinow is now on display at MAS Context's Reading Room in Chicago, offering visitors a showcase of their innovative approach to the delivery of much-needed housing stock in the city across five different typologies.

A series of half-scale models of different projects comprises There is Room, communicating what curators say are the “effective spatial values” of demarcation from cookie-cutter standardization that has abounded for years sans any tangible or prominent design deviations. 

Founded in 2016 by Harvard GSD classmates Lap Chi Kwong and Alison Von Glinow following their experiences in the offices of Herzog & de Meuron, Wang Shu, and SOM, Kwong Von Glinow has quickly become a mainstay in Chicago’s changing residential market with recognition from Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, Chicago Prize, and another 2017 affordable housing competition in New York City.

"We love to create. Our passion is to create architecture people will enjoy spending time in. Since beginning our office, our working motto has been 'Enjoy Architecture.' Very simply, this is what we want to do: create and enjoy architecture," they told Archinect for a feature interview in 2017.

The firm was also recently included in the Chicago Architecture Center’s 'missing middle density'  competition in the spring. MAS Context curators say the exhibition's lens will help form an understanding of their work in the context of the broader citywide conversation, displaying through the text and models what they refer to as "an optimism for multiple readings of these standardized typologies."

As they continued in verse: “There is Room: The City has room for design innovation. The Building has room to reevaluate how it accommodates contemporary lifestyles and values. The Room has the possibility to enhance everyday life.”

The exhibition is open now and will remain on view through October 14th by appointment only. Reservations can be made here.