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Francesco Marullo

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Join us for our Faculty Fellow Lecture Series on Tuesday, October 6, from 4:00-5:30PM!

Francesco Marullo is Associate Professor at the UIC School of Architecture. His research interrogates the relations between space, labor, and production through the multiple forms of the architectural project—from words to drawings, from abstraction to construction.

Not all architecture wants us to feel at home. Marullo’s lecture asks when making domestic intimacy strange can produce critical distance—and when it merely entertains. It begins with a 1931 conversation between Bertolt Brecht and Walter Benjamin about dwelling after the bourgeois interior. Benjamin found an answer in traceless surfaces of glass and steel, and the tabula rasa of the concrete frame. Brecht turned to the nomadic guest, whose presence unsettles habitual relations to objects and space. Following Brecht’s theatrical method of estrangement, the lecture moves to Chicago, the distant metropolis where his plays exposed capitalism’s effects on everyday life. There, the steel frame converted openness into speculation, experimental glass houses marketed mobility, and residential hotels organized transient dwelling within fireproof concrete structures. These architectures define estrangement not as novelty or discomfort, but as a project of distance: making the spatial and economic conventions of dwelling perceptible, questionable, and open to transformation.

Contact huminst@uic.edu to request accessibility accommodations.

Image credit: Bertolt Brecht, “Im Dickicht der Städte,” cover of the first edition, 1927. © Propylaen-Verlag, Berlin. Courtesy of the Bertolt Brecht Archiv. Flyer for the Faculty Fellow Lecture Series. Francesco Marullo, Associate Professor, School of Architecture. Making a Little Go a Long Way: The Architecture of Estrangement. October 6, 2026. 4:00-5:30PM. Institute for the Humanities, Behavioral Sciences Building, 1007 W. Harrison St., Ste 153. The cover of Bertolt Brecht’s book, Im Dickicht der Städte, which features various city buildings in black and white.

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Remembering meeting Elia in June 2013, after an unforgettable lecture at @theberlage

In the photo with @genericarchitecture and Leo, at the always warm Kobus Kuch, Delft.

R.I.P Elia

@oma.eu

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Francesco Marullo (@genericarchitecture), Associate Professor at the UIC School of Architecture, has been named a 2026–2027 Faculty Fellow at the UIC Institute for the Humanities (@uichumanities).

The Faculty Fellowship program supports groundbreaking research leading to major books and articles in the humanities. During his time at the Institute, Professor Marullo will continue to develop “A Project of Distance,” his ongoing investigation into architecture and estrangement, which examines Chicago’s history of industrialization and labor struggle through the work of Bertolt Brecht. He will present the research at a public lecture on October 6, 2026, and at a fellows’ seminar in February 2027.

Marullo holds a PhD in History and Theory of Architecture from TU Delft and the Berlage Center. Before establishing his own practice, he worked at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture and DOGMA. His projects have been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Oslo Architecture Triennale, the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, and the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. He has published essays in Log, Volume, San Rocco, Domus, Flat Out, OASE, gta-papers, and co-authored “Tehran: Life within Walls” (2018), contributed to “The Contested Territory of Architectural Theory” (2022), guest-edited an issue of Log (2022), and co-edited “Deserts” (2023), an issue of the Journal of Architectural Knowledge.

Marullo’s research has received support through a Graham Foundation Fellowship (2017), a DAAD Scholarship (2023), and a MacDowell Fellowship (2026). A selection of his writings is being translated and published in the trilogy “Arquitectura Genérica y Trabajo Vivo” (2024–2027).

Image credit: Ali Reza Malik. Courtesy of MacDowell

#UICSoArch

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Página por página de 'Arquitectura genérica y trabajo vivo. Vol. 2. La logística toma el mando', nuestro último libro de Francesco Marullo, dedicado a influencia de las tecnologías espaciales de la circulación de bienes y conocimientos en las maneras que se piensa la política del espacio y los roles de quienes -por medios económicos, militares e institucionales- les ponen al servicio de sus imaginaciones cada vez más precarizantes.
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Disponible en nuestra web (link en bio).

#arquitecturagenericaytrabajovivo
#lalogisticatomaelmando
#formaytrabajo
#francescomarullo
@genericarchitecture

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Don’t Give Up the Ship!
In the context of the exhibition “All Magnificent and Wild: Notes on Chicago Residential Hotels,” Associate Professor Francesco Marullo (@genericarchitecture) will talk about the background and development of the exhibition and architect Dan Towler Weese, principal at Weese Langley Klein, and architect Susan King (grrrl_architect), principal at HED (@hed_integrateddesign), will discuss their affordable housing work, focusing on key projects of their office.

Organized and hosted by MAS Context (@mascontext).

Tuesday, March 31, 6 pm
MAS Context Reading Room
1564 North Damen Avenue, Suite 204
Chicago, Illinois 60622

RSVP required (link in bio).

“All Magnificent and Wild,” the ongoing typological research project on Chicago’s residential hotels led by Marullo, is on view at the MAS Context Reading Room between March 14 and April 11, 2026.

Image credit
1. © Francesco Marullo.
2. The Covent, Chicago. © Weese Langley Klein
3. The Covent, Chicago (interior). © Weese Langley Klein.
4. Lake Street Studios, Chicago. © HED.
5. Lake Street Studios (interior), Chicago. © HED.

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Join us on Tuesday, March 31, for our event “Don’t Give Up the Ship!” with presentations by architect and theorist Francesco Marullo (@genericarchitecture), architect Dan Towler Weese, and architect Susan King (@grrrl_architect) related to the exhibition “All Magnificent and Wild: Notes on Chicago Residential Hotels” that explores Chicago’s residential hotels. The event will take place at the MAS Context Reading Room (1564 North Damen Avenue, Suite 204, Chicago, Illinois 60622).
• • •
During this event, Francesco Marullo will talk about the background and development of the exhibition All Magnificent and Wild on view at the MAS Context Reading Room between March 14 and April 11, 2026. Architect Dan Towler Weese, principal at Weese Langley Klein, and architect Susan King, principal at @hed_integrateddesign, will discuss their affordable housing work focusing on key projects of their office.
• • •
Link in bio.
• • •
Images: (1 and 2) The New Mark Twain, Chicago. © Weese Langley Klein. (3 and 4) The Covent, Chicago. © Weese Langley Klein.
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#mascontext #allmagnificentandwild #francescomarullo #danweese #susanking

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“All Magnificent and Wild: Notes on Chicago Residential Hotels,” the ongoing typological research project on Chicago’s residential hotels, led by Francesco Marullo (@genericarchitecture), will be on view at the MAS Context Reading Room (@mascontext).

Residential hotels are a hybrid architectural form that emerged in the late nineteenth century to house a transient workforce seeking employment and inexpensive lodging. They include settlement houses, SROs, flophouses, YMCAs/YWCAs, charitable institutions, religious missions, women’s clubs, workingmen’s palaces, and cage hotels—traces largely erased by decades of urban renewal and gentrification. Besides a set of speculative drawings and visual juxtapositions, the exhibition also presents thirty-two historical case studies, each redrawn in plan and cabinet axonometric and paired with archival materials, texts, and historical maps, produced through recent graduate and undergraduate courses at UIC.

Proceeding like a forensic investigation—from scarce records and fragmentary evidence toward plausible reconstruction—the research proposes a counter-history of these buildings to imagine alternative futures for affordable housing in Chicago. Among these types, the single-room-occupancy (SRO) hotel best crystallizes the nomadic character of the residential hotel in its most classical form—defined by Chicago code as a building in which at least 90 percent of the units are single-room occupancies. Beyond landmarking, protecting, or expanding what remains, “All Magnificent and Wild” argues for a contemporary counterpart to the SRO: a mid-size co-living architecture tuned to today’s transitional demographics.

Opening reception. Free and no need to RSVP.

3.14—5–7 pm
MAS Context Reading Room
1564 North Damen Avenue, Suite 204
Chicago, Illinois 60622

Image credit: Ewing Annex Hotel, Chicago, 2025. © Francesco Marullo.

#UICSoArch #UICSoA #Spring2026 #MasContext

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Photographs from of the research presentation of “All Magnificent and Wild: Notes on Chicago Residential Hotels,” organized by Francesco Marullo, Associate Professor at UIC School of Architecture, (@genericarchitecture) in collaboration with Daniela Osorio Sañudo (@dos__cientos), Alex Serbanescu (@00_alex.serbanescu), Candace Bey, and Meghna Sanyal (@empatheticoverthinker).
Held on November 14, 2025, at the Jane Addams-Hull House Museum (@hullhousemuseum, the event showcased work from the “All Magnificent Wild” Seminar (Arch 566-567) and the “Estranging Domesticity” Design Studio (Arch 465) at UIC School of Architecture (@uicsoa) with contributions of Chicago scholars, practitioners, city officials, and policy makers including, among others, Jeff Bone (LBBA Architects), Jean Butzen (former CEO Lakefront Supportive Housing), Charles Hoch (Emeritus Professor, UIC Urban Planning), Nadia Maragha (Educator, Jane Addams Museum), Steven McKenzie (City of Chicago, Department of Law), Tom Palazzolo (Photographer), Sendy Soto (Chief Homelessness Officer, City of Chicago), Francine Washington (Board of Commissioners Chicago Housing Authority), Dan Weese (Weese Langley Weese Architects).

Drawings on view by Hadassah Greebel, Tom Godinez, Anita Khalili, Mario Pliego, Daniela Osorio Sañudo, Meghna Sanyal, Alex Serbanescu (Arch 566-567), and Jorge Bryant Chavez, Sarah B. Feinberg, George Fierro, Britney Flores, Samara Nivah Granger, Shizuki Hara, Ibrahim Horeish, Racheal Olujide, Anthony Alexis Ramos, Justyna A Rychtarczyk, Gianna Marie Salerno, Abigail Mary Serban, Dan Zeglen, Zheng Zeng, Miroslava Chavolla Avina (Arch 465).
Photos: Chicago History Museum / Francesco Marullo

Photos: Sarah Larson. Courtesy of Francesco Marullo.

#UICSoArch #UICSoA #Fall2025

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special days in Peterborough @macdowell1907

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2025 marks the centenary of the opening of Northerly Island, a human-made peninsula and park located on Chicago’s Lake Michigan lakefront. Over its existence, it has played multiple roles, from the former site of the Century of Progress World’s Fair and Meigs Field airport to a recreational area, concert venue, and park. To commemorate this significant date, we asked architects, landscape architects, urban designers, planners, historians, journalists, photographers, educators, artists, and advocates—all residents of Chicago—to share their thoughts, memories, and visions for this unique place in the city.
• • •
Link in bio.
• • •
Image: Panoramic View of the Century of Progress, World’s Fair 1933, 1933. John I. Monroe collection of exposition postcards, Newberry Library.
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#mascontext #northerlyisland #chicago

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Join us at the Jane Addams-Hull House Museum (@hullhousemuseum) for “All Magnificent and Wild. Notes on Chicago Residential Hotels” on Friday, Nov 14, between 2–6 pm.

Organized by Francesco Marullo, Associate Professor at UIC School of Architecture, (@genericarchitecture) in collaboration with Daniela Osorio Sañudo (@dos__cientos), Alex Serbanescu (@00_alex.serbanescu), Candace Bey, and Meghna Sanyal (@empatheticoverthinker), the event showcases work from the “All Magnificent Wild” Seminar (Arch 566-567) and the “Estranging Domesticity” Design Studio (Arch 465) at UIC School of Architecture (@uicsoa) with contributions of Chicago scholars, practitioners, city officials, and policy makers including, among others, Jeff Bone (LBBA Architects), Jean Butzen (former CEO Lakefront Supportive Housing), Charles Hoch (Emeritus Professor, UIC Urban Planning), Nadia Maragha (Educator, Jane Addams Museum), Steven McKenzie (City of Chicago, Department of Law), Tom Palazzolo (Photographer), Sendy Soto (Chief Homelessness Officer, City of Chicago), Francine Washington (Board of Commissioners Chicago Housing Authority), Dan Weese (Weese Langley Weese Architects).

Drawings on view by Hadassah Greebel, Tom Godinez, Anita Khalili, Mario Pliego, Daniela Osorio Sañudo, Meghna Sanyal, Alex Serbanescu (Arch 566-567), and Jorge Bryant Chavez, Sarah B. Feinberg, George Fierro, Britney Flores, Samara Nivah Granger, Shizuki Hara, Ibrahim Horeish, Racheal Olujide, Anthony Alexis Ramos, Justyna A Rychtarczyk, Gianna Marie Salerno, Abigail Mary Serban, Dan Zeglen, Zheng Zeng, Miroslava Chavolla Avina (Arch 465).

Special thanks to Igo Kommers Wender and Daniel Mellis for their graphic support; Alexander Jones and Harry Warnaar for their assistance in fabricating the installation.

RSVP required (Link in Bio).

We are grateful to the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum for supporting the UIC School of Architecture and hosting this event.

11.14—2–6 pm
800 S Halsted St
Chicago, IL 60607

Image Credits: Chicago History Museum / Francesco Marullo

#UICSoArch #Fall2025

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Associate Professor Francesco Marullo (@genericarchitecture) awarded “Fall–Winter 2025–2026 MacDowell Fellowship.” MacDowell (@macdowell1907)—the nation’s first artist residency program—has awarded 150 Fellowships to visionary artists working across seven disciplines, representing 25 states, Washington, D.C., and 16 countries, for its Fall 2025–Winter 2026 season. Selected from a highly competitive pool of 1,697 applicants, with an acceptance rate of just 9 percent, Fellows are chosen solely on the basis of the artistic excellence of their work, as evaluated by independent panels of discipline-specific experts. During his residency, Associate Professor Francesco Marullo will continue his counter-history of Chicago’s residential hotels and hybrid forms of collective dwelling.

Congratulations Francesco!

Work from his UIC research studio, “All Magnificent and Wild” on SRO hotels, will be exhibited and discussed at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum (@hullhousemuseum) on November 14, 2025.

#UICSoArch #MacdowellFellowship

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