We are architects for changemakers.
Future Firm is a Chicago-based architecture and design research office. Founded by Ann Lui and Craig Reschke in 2015, the architecture practice spans diverse scales: from exhibition spaces to residential and commercial buildings to urban and territorial speculations. We focus on using design to synthesize the aims and efforts of multiple stakeholders, catalyze transformation for individuals and groups, and create flexible space for diverse needs. We excel at working with clients who are changemakers in their own communities. Our work helps develop novel approaches towards community and belonging when multiple stakeholders come to the table. We use technical expertise and collaborative means to create spaces which bring together diverse agendas as more than the sum of their parts.
Future Firm’s work has been exhibited at Exhibit Columbus, Storefront for Art & Architecture, Shenzhen Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Architecture/Urbanism, New Museum’s Ideas City, and the Chicago Architecture Center. The practice has been published in The Architect’s Newspaper, Architect Magazine, and Wallpaper*. Future Firm also currently operates The Night Gallery, a nocturnal exhibition space on Chicago's South side, which features video and film works by artists and architects from sunset to sunrise.
We are a registered woman- and minority-owned business in the City of Chicago and the state of Illinois (CDB). We offer Self-Certification in the City of Chicago.
Values
• Challenge the status quo.
• Collaborate with compassion and empathy.
• Cultivate anti-racism in ourselves, our practice, the discipline, and the city.
• Prioritize the unexpected.
• Build better buildings—for everyone.
226 S. Wabash Ave.
Ste. 500
Chicago, Illinois 60604
312-598-1567
info@future-firm.org
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Future Firm is a Chicago-based architecture and design research office. We are architects for changemakers, in Chicago and beyond.
Founded by Ann Lui and Craig Reschke in 2015, the architecture practice spans diverse scales: from exhibition spaces to residential and commercial buildings to urban and territorial speculations. We focus on using design to synthesize the aims and efforts of multiple stakeholders, catalyze transformation for individuals and groups, and create flexible space for diverse needs. We excel at working with clients who are changemakers in their own communities. Our work helps develop novel approaches towards community and belonging when multiple stakeholders come to the table. We use technical expertise and collaborative means to create spaces which bring together diverse agendas as more than the sum of their parts.
Future Firm’s work has been exhibited at Exhibit Columbus, Storefront for Art & Architecture, Shenzhen Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Architecture/Urbanism, New Museum’s Ideas City, and the Chicago Architecture Center. The practice has been published in The Architect’s Newspaper, Architect Magazine, and Wallpaper*. Future Firm also currently operates The Night Gallery, a nocturnal exhibition space on Chicago's South side, which features video and film works by artists and architects from sunset to sunrise.
We offer Self-Certification in the City of Chicago. We are pre-qualified with the State of Illinois.
Values
• Challenge the status quo.
• Collaborate with compassion and empathy.
• Cultivate anti-racism in ourselves, our practice, the discipline, and the city.
• Prioritize the unexpected.
• Build better buildings—for everyone.
2023
• Architect's Newspaper, "AN Interior’s Top 50 Architects and Designers of 2023"• Chicago Magazine, "How Justice of the Pies Made Its New Shop Accessible"
• Eater, “Superstar Baker Maya-Camille Broussard's Justice of the Pies to Debut Friday“
• Dwell, “Chicago Is Running a Design Contest to Create Infill Housing—Here’s a First Look at Submissions”
• Dwell, “Chicago Calls On the World’s Best to Design Infill Housing on Its Thousands of Empty Lots”
• Architect’s Newspaper, “An exhibition by Himali Singh Soin at the Art Institute of Chicago situates viewers within mythic catastrophes”
2022
• Architect’s Newspaper, “Future Firm designs a stylish eatery for Chicago’s South Side Bronzeville neighborhood“• Architect Magazine, “Inside Out: Cultivating a Destination for Community, Local Art, and, of Course, Good Wine“
• Hospitality Design, “Bronzeville Winery Opens in Chicago”
• NewCity, “Design 50 2022: The Fifty People Who Shape Chicago | Ann Lui and Craig Reschke”
• Wallpaper*, “Chicago’s Future Firm aims to spearhead change”
• Dwell, “Here’s How We Fix the Hole in the Middle of the Housing Market”
2021
• Fast Company, “The middle class is being crushed by the housing crisis—and a solution is hiding in plain sight”• Wallpaper*, “Hem House proposes new Chicago housing solution”
• Azure Magazine, “How Future Firm Finds Inspiration in the ‘Messy Ecology’ of Cities"
• The Republic, “Midnight light: Sears/Cummins building aims to be overnight sensation"
• Wallpaper*, "Architects create Indiana installations as Exhibit Columbus opens”
• Architect’s Newspaper, “Future Firm imbues a Chicago store and community space with flexible furniture”
• Sci-Arc Channel, “On Futures: Future Firm”
2020
• ArchDaily, “Graham Foundation Announces 2020 Individual Grants”• Wallpaper, “Redesigning The Silver Room community space in Chicago”
• Architect’s Newspaper, “Exhibit Columbus reveals 2020–2021 curatorial theme and Miller Prize recipients”
• NewCity, “Design 50: Who Shapes Chicago”
• Area (Italy), “A new generation of architects paint a diverse community practicing in Chicago
2019
• Architect Magazine, “In Planning Their 'Future Firm,' Future Firm was Born”• Archinect, “Meet Future Firm, the Chicago-Based Practice Calling on Architects to Visualize Vibrant New Futures”
• Chicago Magazine, “Who’s Got Next?: The Activist Architect”
• Architect Magazine, “Next Progressives: Future Firm”
2018
• Crain’s Chicago Business, “40 Under 40: Ann Lui”• NewCity, “Designer of the Moment 2018: Ann Lui”
2017
• Next City, “Chicago Firm Calls for Creating Office of the Public Architect”• The Architect’s Newspaper, “The Night Gallery projects architectural visualizations into the streets of Chicago”
• Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, City of Chicago. IncentOvate Grant (with Chicago Architecture Foundation)
• Times Square Alliance with the Urban Design Forum. Times Square Valentine, Invited Finalist
2016
• Archdaily, “Manhattanisms: 30 Firms Envision New York City's Future Through Drawings and Models”• DNAInfo, “Alleys Transformed Into Main Streets: Could it Happen?”
• WGN, “Re-imagining City Garages”
• Chicago Architect, “Future Firm Seeks Balance Between Innovative and Practical”
• Oslo Architecture Triennale, After Belonging. Honorable Mention for “Cooperative Arctic Hedge Fund”
2015—Before
• Architectural Record, “Exhibition Review: Designing a Presidential Legacy”• Chicago Prize, Chicago Architectural Club. Honorable Mention for “Obama Drone Aviary”
• Architizer, “Step Right Up to This Traveling Architectural Circus“
• ArchDaily, “Crowdfunding: Transformed Truck To Take Art & Architecture on the Road“
Ann Lui, “Curating Collective Space” in Reto Geiser and Michael Kubo, Futures of the Architectural Exhibition: Mario Ballesteros, Giovanna Borasi, Ann Lui, Ana Miljacki, Zoë Ryan, Martino Stierli, Shirley Surya in Conversation with Students (Park Books, 2023) Full Book ︎︎︎
Ann Lui and Craig Reschke, “Goodbye to the Amber Glow,” in Iker Gil, ed., Nocturnal Landscapes (Chicago: Mas Context, 2021).
Full Book︎︎︎
Ann Lui and Craig Reschke, “Violation City,” in Caroline Acheatel, Paul J. Lorenz, Paul Rasmussen and Alexander Stagge, eds., Perspecta 54 “Onus” (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2020).
Full Issue︎︎︎
Full Issue︎︎︎
Ann Lui, “Toward an Office of the Public Architect,” in Bryony Roberts, ed., Log 48 “Expanding Modes of Practice” (New York: Anyone Corporation, 2020).
Download PDF︎︎︎ or Full Issue︎︎︎
Download PDF︎︎︎ or Full Issue︎︎︎
Craig Reschke, “From documents to directives,” in Bradley Cantrell and Adam Mekies, eds., Codify: Parametric and Computational Design in Landscape Architecture, (London ; New York: Routledge, 2018).
Full Book︎︎︎
Full Book︎︎︎
Ann Lui, “In the Wake of the City: Elmgreen & Dragset's Dream of Public Space at the Whitechapel Pool” in Laura Smith et al., Elmgreen and Dragset: This Is How We Bite Our Tongue (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2018).
Full Book︎︎︎
Full Book︎︎︎
Nick Axel, Nikolaus Hirsch, Ann Lui, and Mimi Zeiger, eds., Dimensions of Citizenship (Los Angeles, CA: Inventory Press, 2018).Read Online︎︎︎ or Full Book︎︎︎
Ann Lui, “Reading After Beloning in the Heartland,” in James Graham et al., eds., And Now: Architecture Against a Developer Presidency (New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2017).
Read Online︎︎︎ or Full Book︎︎︎
Read Online︎︎︎ or Full Book︎︎︎
Gediminas Urbonas, Ann Lui, and Lucas Freeman, eds., Public Space? Lost and Found (Cambridge, MA: SA+P Press, 2017).Full Book︎︎︎
Ann Lui, “Data Dreams: The Computer Group and Architecture by Spreadsheet, 1967-84” in Laura Allen and Luke Caspar Pearson, eds., Drawing Futures: Speculations in Contemporary Drawing for Art and Architecture (UCL Press, 2016).Full Book︎︎︎
Ann Lui, “Book Review: Pornotopia: An Essay on Playboy’s Architecture and Biopolitics,” in Journal of Architectural Education, September 7, 2016.
Ann Lui, “Command Line: The Computer-Aided Office,” in Eva Franch i Gilabert, Michael Kubo, Ana Miljacki and Ashley Schaefer., eds., OfficeUS Atlas (Zürich: Lars Muller, 2015).Full Book︎︎︎
