all images © nathan keay / MCA chicago

Johnston Marklee has designed an installation for the cafe space in the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, which coincides with the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. The intervention applies 2 x 2 perspectival square graphic on the cafe walls and a gridded ceiling structure which reduces the double height space of the cafe by half. The new overhead volume alludes to the JML design proposal for the building, in which a mezzanine is introduced to gain additional spaces for education and gathering above and social engagement below. The installation opens at the MCA Chicago on October 3, 2015 and will be up until January 3, 2016.

Inaugurated in 1996, the MCA building was designed on a rigorous grid-based logic which not only influenced the proportions of the spaces inside the building, but also the rhythms of the fenestration and cladding on the exterior. Johnston Marklee’s immersive installation further emphasizes the proportions of this grid system by applying a repeating square graphic on the café walls, as well as creating a gridded ceiling plane that cuts the double height space in half, making for a more intimate scale.

This dropped ceiling plane alludes to one idea Johnston Marklee are considering in their redesign of the space, where a mezzanine floor may be inserted to create rooms for art making and meetings above and a social engagement space below. One characteristic of Johnston Marklee’s approach to the masterplan and restaurant project is a deep respect and understanding of the Kleihues building and this intervention for the Biennial is consistent with that rapport.

first rendering of Grid is a Grid is a Grid is Grid is a Grid

> via Johnston Marklee, 2.mcachicago.org