Heliomorphic Chicago

Charles Waldheim, Energy and sustainability, Essay, Harvard GSD, Harvard GSD Office for Urbanization, High Density, Middle Density, Ricardo Devesa Devesa, Siena Scarff Design, Technology and fabrication

Carbon-emissions, Challenge, Chicago, Chicago Architecture Biennial, City challenge, Collective city, Eco Building, Ecological activation, Ecological researches, Engaging with Heliomorphism, Essay, Framing landscape urbanism, Future cities, Greenhouse emissions, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Heliomorphism, Redesigned city, Solar Energy, Timeless Model, Urban catalyst, Urban Health, Urban Paradigms, Urban planning, Urban political ecology

Heliomorphic Chicago imagines the radical revision of Chicago’s urban form through optimized solar performance. The project makes new history by presenting a pair of counterfactual futures – two Chicagos that might have been. These alternative visions are modeled through specific parameters of solar access and ecological performance. The project presents alternative potentials for many of Chicago’s iconic buildings as opposing pairs, optimized in relation to either social equity or sustainable energy. Heliomorphic Chicago posits a pair of alternative histories for Chicago’s collective urban identity as derived from the simple, yet intractable, opposition of zero-sum economies – solar equity on one hand and solar energy on the other.