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The Future of Brownfields: Critical paths for regional redevelopment

May 3, 2018
9:30-11:30am CST
IIT Institute of Design
565 West Adams Street 7th floor
Chicago, IL 60661

Calumet Collaborative and IIT Institute of Design invites you to a presentation and discussion on the Future of Brownfields. The presentation will introduce the results of the Sustainable Solutions Design Workshop 2018 (SSDW), a graduate-level course offered by the Institute of Design.


Many regions in the US Midwest, such as the Calumet region, are undergoing major transformations as industrial production activities declined or moved away, leaving behind large swaths of vacant land. While some of these spaces are receiving significant credence in the recent decade, many others present multiple levels of contamination (so-called “brownfields”) and can blight regenerative processes of an entire region. Students relied on critical approaches towards innovation processes, considering new opportunities for multi-system integration in the development of sustainable futures for the Calumet region. They explored brownfields as situated infrastructures, which led them to new ways of understanding the multiple resources and assets in the region. Students utilized prototyping as a learning process to explored alternative futures, and applied knowledge brokering techniques to envision new strategies for brownfields redevelopment, considering the flows of multiple capitals in restoring local economies.

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