Cover the Grid

Cover the Grid is a series of urban land paintings produced with GPS-guided robots in the neighborhoods of North Lawndale and Pilsen (Chicago). The visual identity and merchandise produced for the installation provide additional touchpoints to aid community outreach efforts. Screen printing and production was conducted on-site to retain a ready-made aesthetic. The Cover the Grid installation was initiated by Outpost Office for the 2021 Chicago Architectural Biennal.

Cover the Grid transforms vacant territory into landscapes for civic gathering through the modest act of painting; this installation activates civic space by superimposing new programs, remapping existing urban boundaries, or re-parceling existing lots to reveal the potential of existing parcels in The Available City.

The typical application for these semi-autonomous robots is the painting of sports fields. Cover the Grid uses this temporary space-making technique to prototype and envision futures for underutilized and underserved locations on Chicago’s West Side. Each urban painting engages civic boundaries, public rights-of-way, the Chicago grid, and existing neighborhood infrastructure. Cover the Grid produces a dynamic, temporary civic space with no associated material waste or demolition costs. (Note :: Some images below are selected from the cutting room floor and may not be congruent with the output displayed above).

Project Type :: Environmental Design & Brand Design

Role :: Merchandise Design, Installation Team, Design Research

Year :: 2021