Shape of the World — "Humans Need Nature"
“I’m an architect, but the way that I see our practice working is similar to and parallel to the way an ecologist would work. We’re studying the relationships between living things and between us and our habitat, our planet, our cities. It’s about studying relationships and not the individual elements themselves. . . . what we try to do is to design so that we facilitate better relationships, improve our relationships, between each other and the environment.”
—Jeanne Gang
For their 24th episode, podcast series Shape of the World interviews Jeanne Gang about her practice and recent projects.
“Jeanne Gang has an explicit intention to make the human built environment as kind as possible for birds, nature, wildlife and the Earth’s atmosphere. Jeanne’s breakthrough moment was the design of Aqua, a residential tower in Chicago. Opened in 2009, Aqua was the tallest building ever designed anywhere in the world by a female architect. Jeanne conducted personal research and analysis to invent design features that would make Aqua less likely to be a building where birds strike the glass and perish.
International design awards and prestigious commissions piled up for Studio Gang after Aqua. In June of 2020, Phaidon press issued a new monograph on Studio Gang. The high profile Gilder Center, a new wing on the American Museum of Natural History in New York, is currently under construction. This fall, the first residents of Vista Tower—a new hotel and condominium building taller even than Aqua—will move into new homes in the bird-friendly building.”
Related
Jeanne Gang Named Among Women of the Century by USA TODAY
USA Today lists Jeanne Gang alongside Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and Tammy Duckworth as the most inspiring Illinois women of the century.
