God Is In The Details: Lego™ as Theology
Winters in Chicago are long. Housebound over bleak weekends and chilly evenings, we began to entertain ourselves with creative projects. Our favorite activity has been assembling the Lego Architecture kits, historic sites and contemporary masterpieces, which we’d collected as each limited edition set had been released. Our penchant for play and a belief that busy hands are happy hands led us to construct replicas by Frank Lloyd Wright, Sir Charles Barry, James Hoban, SOM, Mies van der Rohe and others—and we were warmed by the delight we found in building together.
Form Follows Beauty
Form Follows Beauty, was presented in a fall PechaKucha by our very own Peter Exley, FAIA. Listen as Peter speaks about the relationship between art, design, architecture, lines, curves, and sensuality as well as the feminine form. Peter shows and tells – chit chatting about his artwork, created using what many would consider an unconventional tool.
Bursting with Color: Architecture Is Fun Wins HUE Award
Playmakers Sharon Exley, MAAE and Peter Exley, FAIA, of the colorful design studio of Architecture is Fun, Chicago, have been named as Benjamin Moore HUE® Award Winners for Contract Interiors. The prestigious award is bestowed annually for a passionate and meaningful use of color in design.
Solar Charging Canopies
Sharing Energy
Car-sharing is transformed in this design of connected nodes of community engagement, where interactive solar-powered electric vehicle charging canopies beckon as vibrant public space.
WonderSCAPES Preschool & Early Learning Exhibit
Architecture Is Fun was perfect for this project.
~ Mindy Shrago, Executive Director, Young At Art
A Young At Art Wonderland of Early Learning: Where Imagination Begins
WonderSCAPES is an arts and play-based environment at Young At Art Museum with a certified preschool dedicated to early childhood development and early learners, ages four and under. The exhibit gallery and preschool are born from the collaboration of the poetic vision of award-winning illustrator DeLoss McGraw and the creative interpretation of Architecture Is Fun.
Mid-Michigan Children’s Museum
Kids here have been through so much, parents losing jobs and homes, factories and schools closing, that a vibrant, exciting, entertaining and educational place just for them took on greater urgency. Community leaders had long believed that the region needed more positive, interactive activities for young families as a way of improving the area’s quality of life and making it more attractive to people and businesses looking to relocate. A compelling museum in the heart of the city helped achieve that goal.
~ Angela Barris, Museum President & CEO
Architecture Is Fun Team
Architecture Is Fun, Inc. makes everyday life fun.
Architecture Is Fun is a collaborative practice that explores the nexus of architecture, education and experience. For the past decade, this small, yet, successful studio has spread its influence as educative design strategists, consulting to major organizations in myriad fields, from museums and schools to foundations and associations, on a wide range of issues but always with a long-standing commitment to build accessible places of learning, living and fun that are indispensable for human growth and development. Thanks to its seminal approach to play, Architecture Is Fun has been tapped to work on such a visually compelling and socially engaging host of museum, library, school, healing, community and public space projects. Renown collaborators, architects and educators Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown called the studio’s oeuvre “work of significance and relevance, joy and seriousness, range and depth.”
Evanston Public Library: Children’s Library
Making Room for Growth
With collections exceeding capacity and unanticipated citywide increase in juvenile population, the Evanston Public Library had little room to grow. This challenging renovation reconfigured and re-envisioned the formal library, transforming it into a literary children’s garden of delights.
GreenSCAPES Environmental Education
Through art, children and families can make informed choices that help care and shape our earth.
~ Sharon Exley
GreenSCAPES: Where Informed Choices Shape the Earth
Within Young At Art Museum’s landscape, the GreenSCAPES gallery, STEAM-based workshops and party room focus on arts-based environmental education. Calling attention to nature’s fragility and how to live lightly on our earth, GreenSCAPES is filled with art-making and responsible decision-making experiences. In hands-on ways, young artists create their own caring relationship with the environment that surrounds them.
Pablo’s Magical Theater: Now Showing at Young At Art Museum
Within the Young At Art Museum, the GreenScapes Gallery teaches young artists to be change agents. Artist Pablo Cano serves as the inspiration and catalyst for recycled art making in two related spaces: Pablo’s Magical Marionette Theater and Pablo’s STEAM Recycled Workshop. Within the grotto-like theater, children, students and families watch fascinating detailed films of Pablo’s creative process, his ability to transform found and discarded objects into mesmerizing puppets, and a series of classic tales, showcasing Pablo’s puppets found on display.
Let’s Be Friends