sign as surface. architecture and design project series on show at artists space, new york ...........................................................................................
......................... shop .................. competitions .............. education ................ interviews ................... snapshots ................... history .......... contemporary
sign as surface architecture and design project series on show at artists space, new york september 6 through october 18, 2003 http://www.artistsspace.org --- sign as surface is a group exhibition of built and speculative projects by ten young international architectural practices. the show is framed around two competing tendencies - practices rooted in representation and metaphor - and those founded on material systems and organizations. the projects featured in the show investigate the architectural surface as a site for expression, from the space of the figurative and featured, to a space of coded interface. --- the practices included in the exhibition - evan douglis (nyc); FAT (london); jakob + macfarlane (paris); lyons (melbourne); neutelings riedijk (rotterdam); NL (amsterdam); oceanD (boston / nyc / london); ali rahim (nyc); sauerbruch hutton (berlin) and servo (los angeles / nyc / stockholm / zürich) while much attention has been drawn to the fabrication techniques and digital production tools employed by the contemporary architectural avant-garde, what is often left untouched in current considerations of architectural production is the communicative significance of its visual language and embedded surface coding. sign as surface will examine the architectural surface is a point of contact and transit between urban and the architectural, interior and exterior, private and public, artificial and the natural. concurrently, the exhibition will consider the architectural sign in terms of issues such as inclusion versus exclusion, the popular versus the academic, and representation / decoration versus interpretation / abstraction. the questions swirling around the complexities addressed by sign as surface circumscribe a new generation of architects defined by distinct but overlapping concerns and lineages- neo-mannerism and expressionism versus extreme formalism and technically determined abstraction. the emerging practices represented simultaneously signal a reframing of the architectural surface as a performative envelope and a re-investment in what robert venturi termed 'explicit ‘denotative’ symbolism.' --- artists space is one of the first alternative spaces in new york, it was founded in 1972 to support contemporary artists working in the visual arts, including video, electronic media, performance, architecture and design. the mission of artists space is to encourage experimentation, diversity and dialogue in contemporary arts practice, provide an exhibition space for new art and artists, and foster an appreciation for the vital role that artists play in their community. --- curator peter zellner is an architect, writer and curator. he is the author of hybrid space- new forms in digital architecture. his architectural projects have been exhibited and published internationally- most recently as a part of experimental architectures 1950-2000, an exhibition of the FRAC centre permanent collection in orléans, france. zellner is a studio faculty member at SCI-arc, the southern california institute of architecture. he has served as a critic on academic juries at harvard university, the architectural association, columbia university, the university of pennsylvania, UCLA and the university of toronto. he has lectured in australia, japan, europe and the united states. his essays have appeared in journals such as daidalos, archis and archistorm and in various publications such as digital/real, an exhibition catalogue for the deutches architektur museum in frankfurt. he holds a bachelor in architecture from the royal melbourne institute of technology in australia and master in architecture from harvard university. along with jeffrey inaba, principal of AMO, he is the co-founder of ValDes http://www.val-des.org http://www.lab71.org/issue04/l71section180/l71section180.html a non-profit organization dedicated to researching suburban conditions. --- catalogue the exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring essays by christopher hight, associate professor, rice university and andreas ruby, architecture editor, critic and curator, cologne. --- ------- monthly designboom newsletter ------- ------- ? comments and contact us ? -------	evan douglis 'auto-braids / auto-breeding project- a surface for the exhibition of works by jean prouvé at arthur ross gallery, columbia university' courtesy evan douglis and associates, nyc fat 'community hall and summer village on the outskirts of hoogvliet, a suburb of rotterdam'. courtesy FAT jakob macfarlane 'bookshop loewy asinuous series of bookcases and space dividers' courtesy jakob + macfarlane lyons 'victoria university online multimedia centre, detail of digital skin- the skin is cut and peeled away to form sunshades to screen the interior courtesy lyons architects, melbourne australia neutlings riedijk 'concert hall, bruges' courtesy neutlings riedijk architects, rotterdam NL 'basketbar, basket ball court and lounge/bar at the university of utrecht ' courtesy NL architects ocean D 'glass wall project, prototype for a glass surface' courtesy ocean D ali rahim 'performative surfaces- leisure surfaces for the athens olympics. interior perspective showing performative scenarios to be interpreted by different cultures for the olympic games.' courtesy ali rahim / contemporary architecture practice sauerbruch hutton 'experimental factory, magdeburg' courtesy sauerbruch hutton architects / berlin servo 'lobbi-ports project' courtesy servo