Could Be Design creates seriously playful spaces that initiate participation, companionship, and solidarity among multiple communities.
Directed by Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison, the Chicago- and Urbana-based design practice imagines the built environment as an animate being with agency of its own. From exuberant interiors to interactive public spaces, the practice positions architecture as an active character in the world, enacting a built environment full of vibrant color, shapely form, and intimate encounters.
Could Be Design’s work has been exhibited at Miami Art Week, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Elmhurst Art Museum, and the Detroit Month of Design. In 2023, Could Be Design was named a contributor to the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s fifth edition, selected as a University Design Research Fellow at Exhibit Columbus, and named one of the six winners of the 2023 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, awarded by The Architectural League of New York. In 2022, Could Be Design was spotlighted in Metropolis magazine’s “New Talent” feature and named #15 in Newcity magazine’s Design 50: The Fifty People Who Shape Chicago. The practice was also featured in Architect magazine’s “Next Progressives” series. Follow our adventures on Instagram.
Could Be Design also publishes SOILED, an architectural literary magazine, and serves as the Artistic Director of the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival, a public art and architecture exhibition that includes multiple pavilion installations that celebrate cultural heritage, designed and built in partnership with community organizations in the North Lawndale neighborhood.
Principals
Joseph Altshuler
PRINCIPAL AND COFOUNDER
Joseph Altshuler is an architectural designer and Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign School of Architecture. In addition to his work as a design practitioner, Joseph propagates design excellence as a curator, editor, and author. Joseph’s first book, Creatures Are Stirring: A Guide to Architectural Companionship, prompts readers to befriend architecture through a collection of essays, flash fictions, and case studies that illustrate solidarity among humans, nonhumans, buildings, interiors, and the broader environment. He is also the founding editor of SOILED, an architectural literary magazine. Each of his book-bound and curatorial efforts create new entry points for public audiences to engage in spatial ideas.
Zack Morrison
PRINCIPAL AND COFOUNDER
Zack Morrison is an architectural designer with over 10 years of professional experience working with private clients, developers, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. Zack has taught design studios at the University of Kentucky, and he was a masterclass teaching fellow at Lawrence Technological University. In addition to his work as a design practitioner, Zack proliferates design excellence as a furniture designer and maker, crafting objects for homes, offices, and community spaces. Zack’s design approach marries functional requirements with charismatic liveliness, positioning each furnishing as an interactive companion that animates everyday life with unexpected moments of joy.
Our Design Services
We help community organizations, cultural institutions, academic institutions, private clients, and local governments achieve their goals by creating everything from exuberant interiors to interactive public spaces.
Architectural Design
Interiors
Creative Placemaking
Installations
Exhibition Design
Public Art
Urban Design
Streetscape Design
Landscape Design
Our Impact
Our practice positions architecture as an active character in the world, enacting a built environment full of vibrant color, shapely form, and intimate encounters. These qualities of our work create a tangible impact for our clients and partners.
Create spaces that tell stories, build audiences, and active the senses.
Initiate interaction and participation in the built environment.
Cultivate collaboration and engagement.
Amplify identity for communities.
Inspire delight, uncover surprise, and spark joy among everyday life.
Select Clients
Select Press & Awards
05.15.2024
Architects' Newspaper: Creatures are Stirring by Joseph Altshuler and Julia Sedlock is billed as a “guide to architectural companionship”
11.20.2023
Galerie: The 8 Best Exhibitions at the Chicago Architecture Biennale 2023
10.10.2023
Surface: The Evolving Potential of Columbus’s Modernist Buildings
10.05.2023
Wallpaper: At Chicago Sukkah Design Festival 2023 six pavilions bring together local communities
09.12.2023
Architects' Newspaper: Process as Project
08.09.2023
The Architectural League of New York: “Building as BFF? Yes Please, Says Could Be Design.”
08.07.2023
The Republic News: ‘A Carousel for Columbus’: Mural inspired by designer Alexander Girard’s vibrant colors, soon to arrive
10.27.2022
WBEZ: What’s That Building? Sukkah Design Festival in North Lawndale
09.30.2022
Architects' Newspaper: Chicago’s first-ever sukkah design festival seeks to do social good in an under-resourced neighborhood
06.23.2022
Metropolis: Could Be Architecture Says Friendly Design Makes Us Kinder Humans
04.06.2022
Newcity: Fantastical for Real: Creatures Are Stirring Embraces Architecture’s Creaturely Qualities
03.07.2022
Newcity: Design 50 2022: Architecture and the Built Environment
02.09.2022
Bloomberg - Citylab: Chicago’s Bungalows Are Where the City Comes Together
06.04.2021
Chicago Tribune: Op-ed: The Thompson Center: a retrospective from the future
04.02.2020
AN Interior: Messing w/ Mies
03.13.2020
Newcity: A Party Along the Parti: Could Be Architecture Transforms the McCormick House
03.04.2020
Architect: Next Progressives
Let's imagine the future together. Say hello!
Collaborators
Nekita Thomas
Nilay Mistry
Andrea Jablonski
Architeture for Public Benefit
Via Chicago
Cosmo Design Factory
Lizi Breit
Norman Teague
Myles Emmons
Nelly Agassi
Chelsea Ross
Darrell McKinney
Ladi Famodu
Latent Design
Matthew Harlan
Katanya Raby
Team Members
Riley Vernon
Amir Zarei
Efrain Araujo (Former)
Lily Hernandez (Former)
Community Partners
Lawndale Pop-Up Spot
Open Architecture Chicago
Stone Temple Baptist Church
Mobile Makers