Couplings 2023

Akima Brackeen is a Bay Area-born and Chicago-based architectural designer and educator. Akima’s research challenges the racial perceptions, values, and culture of waterscapes by translating and spatializing Black narratives through music and the built environment. Akima is currently the inaugural Rowe Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).

Abigail Chang is a designer and educator from Los Angeles and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture. Her practice is interested in subtle encounters driven by material qualities and details and responds to currents in contemporary culture. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the 2019 Lisbon Architecture Triennale, the 2021 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, and as a solo exhibition, Reflections of a Room, at Volume Gallery in 2022. Her research has been supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and UIC College of Architecture, Design and the Arts.

Tom Lee is the principal and cofounder of Eastman Lee Architects. Tom is an award-winning designer who endeavors to make architecture that is simple, memorable, and timeless. He invites collaboration and is adept at cultivating and curating ideas into a shared vision that is translated into space and materials, while respecting time, budget, place, and the environment. Passionate about the next generation of architects, Tom has taught at the University of Cincinnati and MIT, and regularly sits on juries at several universities and serves on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Architectural Club.

Matthew Messner is a designer and critic. He holds a Masters of Architecture and a Masters of Art in Design Criticism from the University of Illinois Chicago and a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies with a Minor in Art History and Criticism from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Currently he is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Formerly he has worked in the offices of Jimenez Lai/Bureau Spectacular and Julian De Smedt in Copenhagen, Denmark. His design and writing have been published and featured in international galleries and publications, to include the Storefront for Art and Architecture, the Graham Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Peoples Art House of Zagreb, Croatia, and the 2014 Venice Biennale of Architecture. Matthew was in the Army Reserve for eight years and is a Veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Florencia Rodriguez is director of and associate professor at the UIC School of Architecture. Having practiced mainly as an editor, writer, and educator, she has built a career path driven by a strong entrepreneurial spirit that led her to create and run cultural initiatives related to architecture and design. In 2010, Rodriguez founded PLOT, a publication she continued to direct until 2017 when she co-founded NESS with Pablo Gerson. From that platform, she has edited books and organized events committed to the dissemination of new narratives, the exploration of alternative forms of design criticism, and discussions about the contemporary role of design. In 2015 she created Monte, an independent space in Buenos Aires where she curated and promoted a very active public program. Rodriguez has lectured, curated exhibitions, acted as a juror, and organized international symposia in different institutions. She has received awards for her editorial work and published several articles in books and specialized media such as Domus, Oris, summa+, Arquine, A+U, or Uncube. In 2020, together with Mark Lee, she guest-edited America, the 48th issue of the Harvard Design Magazine. Her more recent book, MCHAP 2 Territory & Expeditions (IITAC, Actar, NESS), was launched in March 2022.

Dawveed Scully is a Managing Deputy Commissioner at the City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development and an adjunct professor at IIT College of Architecture. Trained as an architect and urbanist, Dawveed has a strong passion to make design a strong tool to enhance the lives of everyday people. He has experience working on a variety of projects from vision strategies that create a framework to move forward to developing implementation strategies that allow those visions to be realized. He does this by facilitating robust collaboration between stakeholders, local government, and empowering citizens into the design process. Dawveed is a graduate of IIT College of Architecture and was awarded the Crain’s Chicago Business 40 under 40 2020, Leadership Greater Chicago Class of 2021, and ULI Chicago Young Visionary Award in 2018

Brian Vitale is the managing director of the Chicago office of global design firm, Gensler, and one of the firm’s most influential and awarded designers. He has authored some of the firm’s most significant and diverse work, including the Gratz Center at Fourth Presbyterian Church, the Kohler Creative Communications building, the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Columbia College Chicago’s Student Center and the University of Kansas’s Capitol Federal Hall. A firm believer in the benefits of blurring the line between academia and professional worlds, Brian has served as adjunct design faculty at the University of Illinois Chicago, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where in 2015, he delivered the keynote speech at the School of Architecture’s convocation ceremony. He has received multiple awards, including the prestigious Chicago AIA Dubin Family Young Architect Award and the National AIA Young Architect Award. In 2020, Brian was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the Arts from Columbia College Chicago for his transformative work.

Chris Wolf is an architect and project manager at von Weise Associates. His daily practice focuses on residential projects with a special emphasis towards rehabilitation and re-use of historic structures in Chicago. He has a particular interest in how contemporary forms and living patterns can be incorporated into the existing fabric of a city. A resident of Old Town, Chris sits on the Historic District Planning and Zoning Committee for the Old Town Triangle Association. Chris has taught design studio at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He holds a Master of Architecture from the UIC and a Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle.