Originally conceived by The Canadian Center for Architecture, Actions: What You Can Do With the City will open at the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts in Chicago from October 16th through March 13th, 2010.

Actions: What You Can Do With the City features seemingly common activities such as walking, playing, recycling, and gardening that are pushed beyond their usual definition by the international architects, artists, and collectives featured in the exhibition. Their experimental interactions with the urban environment show the potential influence personal involvement can have in shaping the city and challenge fellow residents to participate. It highlights distinct actions including projects related to the production of food and urban agriculture; the planning and creation of public spaces to strengthen community interactions; the recycling of abandoned buildings for new purposes; the appropriation of urban sites into terrain for play, such as soccer, climbing, skateboarding, or parkour; the alternate use of roads for walking or rail lines as park space; the design of clothing to circumvent urban barriers against loitering or resting on benches; and many others.

The exhibition is presented the same year that the city celebrates the centennial of Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan for Chicago. Though Burnham urged cities to "make no little plans," this exhibition underlines the contemporary notion that small, simple actions can (and do) have large impacts on the urban fabric.

Featured above are Action #79, Paint Grows Soccer Field, by Maider López and soccer fans in the United Arab Emirates, and Action #67, Wood Makes People Big as Cars by Hermann Knoflacher.

See the exhibition preview here, or, if you're in Chicago, check The Graham Foundation for visiting hours and associated talks.

#52. Clever Tent Keeps Campers in City by Michael Rakowitz