Critical Architecture Writing

My nascent foray into the world of writing about architecture

[criticaltermsinarch]

Outdoor Lighting

Couldn’t help but notice the lights at the Writers Theatre. Having studied the architectural concept of detail as a unit of articulation and its ability to present a narrative, I find these lights highly responsive to lighting in theatre. More specifically, I see it as a possible incorporation of outdoor space into performance as well as a self-referential choice in general. 

[criticaltermsinarch]

Introductory Post: Research Diary

I will be writing about Writers Theatre in Glencoe IL. The Writers Theatre building is fairly recent and a distinctive community theatre space. I am in the process of negotiating what it means for a building to house a theatre group on the suburbs outside of established theatre district in Chicago, and how performance informs the building.

As of now, the inability to explore the place has been a major setback. Meeting representatives at the designated building visiting hours has been a challenge, with lesser chance to look around the space and no access to the performance spaces especially on show nights when the theatre is open longer allowing for more time to visit after school hours. This is bound to become more difficult with winter in sight. During show runs, even weekends appear dicey, owing to tech runs and dress rehearsals.

So, I decided to switch gears and gather information about the building through secondary texts/material, namely their website. I was guided to the Writers Theatre website blog’s documentation of the building’s origin story for reference. I have multiple entries bookmarked and I have a copy of their press release with links to media coverage on the subject. I will consolidate my notes and reflections on the material I gather from these sources in my blog in the course of my research.

I have, however, established contact and hope to correspond with someone from the establishment this weekend. I will share information gleaned from the exchange through email correspondence/meetings in person in successive posts.

My next step after this would be to prepare a standard question I can use for recorded interviews, and questions may vary a bit from person to person (if someone already answers a specific question first, for example) hope to find someone to interview with. I have simultaneously begun to familiarize myself with Jeanne Gang’s work in the meantime and have begun digging information about the unveiling of the building at present. Photograph: Chicago Tribune