Studio Becker Xu

Cofounded by Sharon Xu and Robert Becker, Studio Becker Xu practices architecture and design to search for meaningful ways of shaping our shared experience in the built environment. The studio engages in design across scales and contexts, asking how design can cultivate a sense of place and activate different scales of community. Locally, the practice contemplates, speculates, and engages the community through projects like a reimagined two-flat for Chicago Come Home Initiative’s exhibition on missing middle infill housing and Lawndale Gathering Tree, a playscape for the forthcoming One Lawndale Children’s Discovery Center for Chicago’s West Side. The practice is informed by past experience in the building of cultural spaces, social housing, and workplace design. Sharon and Robert both hold Master of Architecture degrees from Princeton University. Alongside practice, they are also educators at Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Illinois Chicago.