san francisco CALIFORNIA
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.
The Open WORKSHOP: This project presents work that tests how architecture can empower the diverse voices that make up the public realm and the environments in which those voices exist and operate.
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- The Open WORKSHOP, “New Investigations in Collective Form.”, Gallery View
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- The Open WORKSHOP, “New Investigations in Collective Form.”, Gallery View
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- The Open WORKSHOP, “New Investigations in Collective Form.”, Gallery View
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- The Open WORKSHOP, “New Investigations in Collective Form.”, Gallery View
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- The Open WORKSHOP, “New Investigations in Collective Form.”, Model View
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- The Open WORKSHOP, “New Investigations in Collective Form.”, Model View
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- The Open WORKSHOP, “New Investigations in Collective Form.”, Model Close-up
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- The Open WORKSHOP, “New Investigations in Collective Form.”, Model Close-up
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- The Open WORKSHOP, “New Investigations in Collective Form.”, Model Close-up
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- MILLIØNS, “Bathing, Again.”, Model
New Investigations in Collective Form presents work by the Bay Area design office The Open Workshop that tests how architecture can empower the diverse voices that make up the public realm and the environments in which those voices exist and operate. Acknowledging the fluctuating conditions of the urban realm and its ecological context, this exhibition examines how collectivity can be formed today. Presented are models and drawings showcasing the office’s past projects and the concepts and theoretical explorations that guided them. A new work commissioned for this exhibition—a large-scale immersive installation that features a selection of architectural models, plants, and other artifacts arranged across an interconnected three-dimensional field made of hanging structures—invites visitors to interact by pulling or lifting modules, looking at the objects from various perspectives, and engaging with the content. By involving the user and nature in the composition, the installation explores the different ways that architectural form can create inclusive forums for collectivity.
More than fifty years have passed since the publication of Fumihiko Maki’s seminal text Investigations in Collective Form (1964), an essay that has inspired the work of The Open Workshop and this exhibition. Maki, a Pritzker Prize–winning architect who designed YBCA’s Gallery and Forum building, argued for “collective form” to address what he saw as the increasingly fragmented city and public realm. He believed that buildings should not be designed in isolation, either from other constructions or from the evolving needs of their users. Today we face our own urgent building and urban challenges—from economic inequality to a progressively fragile natural environment—that again require us to question where our collectivity resides and how form can frame what we hold in common.
More information at www.theopenworkshop.ca and @theopenworkshop
Check out the work at:
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Mar 09 2018 — Jul 29 2018
