18 of a Kind, the inaugural project of the nonprofit organization The Available City, NFP (TAC), invites national and international architects to design eighteen objects and spaces for hosting events in each of the eighteen underserved South and West Side Chicago neighborhoods that have the highest quantities of city-owned vacant land and are home to primarily Black and Brown communities. Starting in 2026, through performance-based events utilizing one of the designed objects or spaces, 18 of a Kind explores commonalities and areas of distinction in each neighborhood.

Thematically, each design will draw upon the history, culture, interests, and needs of its respective neighborhood to celebrate their unique identities while also highlighting commonalities between them. TAC is commissioning eighteen portable objects (stands, chairs, small platforms, and small frames) that are easy to move to different locations for performances and community events. Additionally, TAC is organizing collaborations between invited architects and local community organizations to make fixed spaces (platforms, frames, canopies, and shells) in specific sites that reflect the interests and needs of those community organizations.

Through these activities, 18 of a Kind introduces direct experiences of collective space broadly in order to develop relationships and partnerships with community organizations within each neighborhood that can lead to the creation of additional collective spaces in subsequent years. It thus contributes to TAC’s intention to work continuously with neighborhood organizations and architects to design and construct collective spaces that reflect the interests and needs of neighbors and contribute new resources and opportunities within their communities. TAC will do so in an ongoing exposition of collective space, focused on introducing new spaces annually with attention to each individual spaces and to fostering the urbanism of a growing number of collective spaces within each neighborhood and across neighborhoods.

Current design participants include Akima Brackeen, FLYHALF (Adam Maserow and Isabel Strauss), FRONTERA-NATION (César A. Lopez), Sheryl Tucker Da Vasquez, and William Williams. Their proposals were presented in the first exhibition of 18 of a kind in August 2025 at MAS Context.

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