Azure — “Jeanne Gang Wants to Connect People to Nature—and Each Other”

October 11, 2017

“While rushing through O’Hare Airport to catch a flight, Jeanne Gang, founding principal of Studio Gang in Chicago and New York, considers the importance of slowing down—not in her own practice necessarily, but in how to catalyze meaningful interactions between strangers.

She envisions buildings where neighbours take the time to talk to one another, and cities where inhabitants value unhurried walks along waterfronts as much as they do quick drives on highways. She also imagines these purposefully engaged communities to include birds and insects. In fact, Gang considers the health of human life to be contingent on the health of natural ecological systems, particularly in cities. …

‘Instead of thinking of architecture as limited to a site plot line,’ she says, ‘let’s see how architecture can connect to larger ecosystems and cultural communities. Let’s see how architecture can be the spark for much bigger change.’”

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