Terreform Urban Research Receives Graham Foundation Grant 2019

Terreform has received a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts for its imprint, Urban Research.

The Chicago-based Graham Foundation has released a list of organizations that will receive its coveted Production and Presentation Grants to pursue architecture-related projects this year.

In line with the Graham Foundation’s mission to “foster the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture,” awardees will receive assistance with production-related expenses for a variety of undertakings that aim to enrich architectural discourse, including films, publications, exhibitions, and lectures. Final decisions were made on the basis of four criteria: originality, feasibility, capacity, and potential for impact.

More from The Architect’s Newspaper.

See list of projects UR (Urban Research) 2019.

Anas Awad, "The Merchandise Tunnel," illustration, 2019. In "UR13: Open Gaza: Four Tunnels" by Bin Al-Sirhid (Pseudonym).

Urban Research (UR), the imprint of Terreform, publishes progressive books about cities and their futures.

Michael Sorkin at the Green Living Room - West Woodlawn

Michael Sorkin presented at the soft opening of the Green Living Room in West Woodlawn, Chicago. Located in 6431 S. Cottage Grove Avenue, the Green Living Room is the result of the work and dedication of Naomi Davis, founder of community nonprofit, Blacks In Green, which:

“serves as a bridge and catalyst among communities and their stakeholders in the design and development of green, self-sustaining, mixed-income, walkable-villages in communities owned and populated by African Americans. In these places, every household can walk-to-work, walk-to-shop, walk-to-learn, walk-to-play, and neighbor dollars circulate to reduce greenhouse gases.”

— “Woodlawn’s new coffee shop teaches residents about sustainability, green neighborhoods” by Margaret Tazioli, Curbed Chicago.

Photographs by Blacks in Green. See more here.

“Davis doesn’t take the “living room” title lightly; the muti-purpose space is open to the public and designed to feel like a second home for West Woodlawn residents. Given Davis’ background in theater, she added a stage for performances, live broadcasting, mini concerts and film nights. The Green Living Room also holds a cafe with free wi-fi, computers with low to no-cost green economy curricula, and information on resources and job opportunities.”

— "Chicago Green Jobs Group Gets Official Headquarters" By Emily Nonko, Next City

Sorkin shared his housing design and collaborative journey with Davis at the opening.

NAOMI DENISE DAVIS: SURTHRIVE! in the cities where an entire acre is impossible to find -- consider the BIG: Blacks in Green BIG Urban Homestead plan and our "House As Garden" design that adapts to common Chicago lot sizes. Our award-winning design is by internationally renowned Michael Sorkin Studio, and we previewed it to standing room only at our #HardHatHappening on 8/31. From fruit/nut orchard and vegetable sanctuary to water reuse and of course solar, we're building a "living building" affordable to the black middle-income purse. Groundbreaking and breaking ground in 2020 -- visit us #TheGreenLivingRoom for info on how to own your own green 4-flat in the 'hood...and start building your family health and wealth!!

From public post below:

Learn more about Terreform’s work with BIG and Chicago on our South Side Stories project page.

Support Blacks in Green.

Deen Sharp in Progress in Human Geography

Terreform co-director, Deen Sharp, traces how the field of regional geography/area studies (focusing on Middle East studies) drifted away from the discipline of geography. He asserts that area studies’ milieus can ‘diffract’ geographical categories and create new possibilities for geographical knowledge production.

After decades of geography and area studies drifting apart, I argue there has been an area studies turn in geography. The long divergence between the two, however, has resulted in a certain misunderstanding by geographers of what area studies scholarship is and what this field can contribute to the discipline. Area studies should not be considered as an approach that merely concentrates on the representation of difference but rather as a milieu in which difference is practiced and geographical concepts can be ‘diffracted’. Area studies can offer geography new ways to think about its place in, and entanglement with, the world.

Keywords: area studies, Cold War, Middle East geography, new materialism, post-colonial theory, representation, War on Terror

PDF. Sharp, D. (2019). Difference as practice: Diffracting geography and the area studies turn. Progress in Human Geography, 43(5), 835–852. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132518788954