Nike Lab Workshops
Location: Michigan Avenue, Chicago
Client: Nike
Scope: Public Programming
Progress/Year: 2019
Client: Nike
Scope: Public Programming
Progress/Year: 2019
The Nike Chicago Re-Creation Center c/o Virgil Abloh (673 N. Michigan Avenue.) is a community project designed to engage in the physical and cultural energy of Chicago. The Re-Creation Center reimagines retail with 8-weeks of varying interdisciplinary workshops. Projects grounded in sport and culture will give up-and-coming creative youth the chance to leave a legacy on their city and the world. Ten of our city’s most creative youth have been selected to participate in a multidisciplinary Incubator Program led by five chosen Mentors at the top of their respective industries: graphic design with Chuck Anderson, visual arts with Alyx Harch, photography with Paul Octavious, design identity with Norman Kelley, and architecture with Future Firm.
Future Firm was selected as one of five mentors in Chicago to lead a series of public workshops and workshops for ten creative youth. Inspired by NikeLab’s ideas to use sport and play as creative provocations to engage the city, Future Firm is developing a workshop around the theme of architecture and public space. During a three-hour workshop on July 8th, Future Firm will guide the ten mentees through the process of designing large-scale, 1:1 pieces of street furniture. These designed objects will be tested in the street on Michigan Ave. in front of the NikeLab, asking how design can choreograph encounters between diverse programs—skateboarding, performance, fashion runway—with existing uses like shopping, strolling, and conversing in the public realm.