Shacks and shanties

2012-2014

Shacks & Shanties was a multifaceted installation project that transformed vacant lots and overlooked urban spaces into platforms for community engagement, collaboration, and reflection. Conceived by artist Faheem Majeed, the project began in 2012 with Sometimes You Don’t Need an Excuse to Build a Shack, a simple rooftop structure built during the South Side Hub of Production’s occupation of the Fenn House in Hyde Park. What started as an act of personal inquiry—asking what it meant to build without institutional affiliation—quickly evolved into a series of site-specific installations across Chicago’s South Side.

Constructed primarily from found and repurposed materials, each shack became a temporary home for artists, civic organizations, and residents to inhabit, activate, and reimagine together. The works hosted performances, discussions, and installations in neighborhoods such as Bronzeville and South Shore, including partnerships with Sacred Keepers Youth Garden, the South Shore Chamber of Commerce, and Blanc Gallery.

Through these temporary structures, Majeed examined how aesthetics, labor, and access intersected with issues of ownership and community agency. The project challenged conventional notions of public art by prioritizing relationship-building over permanence, and dialogue over design. As Majeed often said, “The structures are temporary, but the relationships are sustainable.” In this way, Shacks & Shanties extended beyond sculpture—it became a living framework for gathering, questioning, and imagining how communities might rebuild, reclaim, and reshape their environments together.

Shacks and Shanties Blog