The inaugural design festival celebrates Illinois Institute of Technology’s—and Chicago’s—legendary, yet largely unknown, Bauhaus heritage.

IIT Institute of Design and IIT College of Architecture will launch the inaugural Shapeshift design festival September 16–28, 2019. Over two weeks of programming, we will demonstrate and discuss design’s role as a catalyst for meaningful change in Chicago yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Bauhaus master László Moholy-Nagy founded ID as the New Bauhaus in 1937. A year later, former Bauhaus director Ludwig Mies van der Rohe became head of architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology, making the university a global center of modernism in the mid-twentieth century. Amidst worldwide celebrations of the Bauhaus centennial in 2019, Shapeshift will honor the remarkable Bauhaus legacy created in Chicago by ID and the College of Architecture.

Just as Chicago and Illinois Tech played leading roles in the development of twentieth-century modernism, the city and the university are together at the forefront of reimagining the lived and built urban environment for the twenty-first century. Working with Chicago communities, ID and the College of Architecture address our city’s key challenges with more equitable and sustainable solutions, and invent new approaches to urban living.

The apex of Shapeshift programming, Bauhaus Live, will take place on Saturday, September, 21 from 10 a.m.–7 p.m. Hear Jan Tichy’s discussion of his exhibition of Bauhäusler palm prints (Future/Past), watch the Bauhaus-inspired ballet Futura Fractals, take a tour of the Mies Campus and view The Mies Project, observe artifacts from The New Bauhaus (An American Bauhaus), and enjoy a reception with refreshments.

To see the full list of events, click here.