The publications of MAS Context address issues that affect the urban context providing a comprehensive view of a single topic through the participation of people from different fields and different perspectives who, together, instigate the debate over urban issues that affect the way we live and design. For the 34th issue of MAS Context, the topic of “air” has been selected. The issue is interested in exploring the impact that air has in the built environment, from the unequal way pollution affects different communities and the particles that travel across borders to how it can create spaces to come together. MAS Context shares the most remarkable ideas and work with the public. It is produced by architects and designers for people interested in the future of the place where they live. It embraces collaboration, explores new formats of distribution, and thinks in a critical way about the issues that affect how we live. And at the same time, it works to generate a collaborative culture of design in the city where it is produced, Chicago.

Iker Gil is an architect and director of MAS Studio, an architecture and urban design firm based in Chicago. He is also the editor-in-chief of the nonprofit organization MAS Context, executive director of the SOM Foundation, and editor of the book Radical Logic: On the Work of Ensamble Studio (MAS Context, 2022) and Shanghai Transforming (Actar, 2008). He has curated or cocurated several exhibitions, including Poured Architecture: Sergio Prego on Miguel Fisac; Nocturnal Landscapes: Urban Flows of Global Metropolises; and BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, part of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. Gil was the cocurator of the 2020–21 Exhibit Columbus and was the associate curator of the United States Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale. He has received several grants and awards for his work from organizations such as the Graham Foundation, the Chicago Architectural Club, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and Casa Asia.

Anna Mort is an independent graphic designer practicing in Chicago. She shares a studio with Rick Valicenti whom she began with working in 2014 when they cocurated CHGO DSGN, a major exhibition of object and graphic design at the Chicago Cultural Center. From 2013–16 Mort was the codirector of LVL3, a gallery in Wicker Park, and more recently cofounded a short-term gallery and retail space in Pilsen. She holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been recognized by the Type Directors Club of New York and The STA 100.

The mission of MAS Context—a nonprofit organization founded in 2009 and based in Chicago—is to advance the fields of architecture and design through the dissemination and sharing of ideas from different disciplines to address in a critical way specific issues of our built environment. It does so through a quarterly publication as well as a series of public lectures and events.