About

We are based in Chicago, but our reach is global. We are a platform that commissions and shares relevant ideas, proposals, and experiences that connect diverse disciplines and place. We want the work to respond to our current context while having a rigor and depth that makes it relevant through time and changing conditions.

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Netsch Residence, Chicago, 2020. © Will Forrest.

We are also an evolving platform. Our core values remain the same while our modes of engagement grow and adjust to respond to an ever-changing context.

We currently develop our work through four core initiatives:

Our topic-based journal brings together global contributors from different disciplines that explore a topic from multiple points of view and perspectives. The print and online publications frame important topics within particular contexts, understanding their historical trajectory while projecting future implications.

Our events act as an extension of the topics explored in the issues, engaging with new audiences in fruitful conversations led by emerging and established academics and practitioners. These events take the form of lectures, book launches, panel discussions, film screenings, exhibitions, studio visits, and artistic installations. The online section dedicated to our events features information about upcoming programs as well as an archive of previous events that include videos, photographs, and texts.

Our online series Observations features individual articles focused on the intersection between the built environment and other disciplines. The articles initiate or expand upon themes explored by MAS Context. This section is also the home to particular series, such as featuring exhibitions across the world affected by COVID-19, and In Context (a recontextualization of our archives by our readers).

Our Dialogues effort is a series of in-depth conversations with Chicago-based practitioners focused on design and the built environment in and around Chicago. Each conversation discusses the ideas and experiences that shape the work of architects, designers, curators, and artists.

These four lines of operation allow for different speeds, formats, engagements, audiences, and outcomes.

Collaborate. Contribute. Debate. Support. Engage. Act.

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Klaus, MAS Context Analog, Studio Gang Architects, Chicago, 2016. © Iker Gil.

“Since it’s founding, MAS Context has grown into an innovative read with an interdisciplinary scope that enriches the perspectives of architecture and urbanistic practices. The journal is intelligently thematically conceived with a lens to view architecture and the city through the eyes of contemporary culture, politics and the environment. Iker’s accomplishment to develop this publication, exhibitions and events is very impressive and a testament to his rigor, creativity and brilliant use of graphic materials to present key topics. This kind of thoughtful approach is needed more than ever to further expand the discourse in contemporary spatial practices.”
Antonio Petrov

TEAM

Editor in Chief

Iker Gil

Contributing Editors

Andrew Clark
Julie Michiels

Ongoing Collaborators

David Schalliol (Photography)
Graphic Arts Studio (Printing)
André Corrêa (Website)

Publisher

MAS Context

Website Design & Development

Span
Collin Joyce

Past Team Members & Collaborators

Emily Baek
Michelle Benoit
Ben Derico
Andrew Dribin
Tom Harris
Stephen Killion
Lucid Creative Agency
Matt Messner
Paul Mougey
Cleo Ngiam
Lance Patrick Sy
Plural
Spirit of Space
Enric Turull
Alexa Viscius