From Me to We: Imagining the City of 2050 investigates the design of future cities at two scales: the major challenges and disruptive technologies shaping our urbanizing planet, as well as specific responses from Chicago architects that envision what future life in Chicago when these major disruptors take hold of our cityscape. A series of six forthcoming temporary exhibitions will then investigate individual topics of ecology, technology, energy, mobility, materiality, and livability.

Philip Enquist is a consulting partner at Skidmore Owings & Merrill, where he plays a key role in the firm’s Global City Design Practice. Enquist’s design perspective encompasses a broad array of innovative, sustainable urban forms that enhance city living with walkable, transit-enabled districts humanized by their natural amenities, and rapidly changing urban clusters within regional ecosystems like North America’s Great Lakes Basin and China’s Bohai Rim. Enquist is committed to the profession through one-on-one mentorships, and has taught urban design studios at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and as the Charles Moore Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. He believes that the world’s explosive growth in cities and population must be managed by bold and holistically sustainable thinking at the national, regional, and metropolitan scale and that human habitat design will become the alpha design science of the 21st century.

Formerly known as the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the Chicago Architecture Center is a nonprofit cultural organization with tours, exhibitions, programs, and events for all ages. Our mission is to inspire people to discover why design matters.