RECORD's monthly list of upcoming and ongoing exhibitions, events, and competitions.
Upcoming Exhibitions
The Hong Kong Institute of Architects has organized a four-city traveling exhibit that showcases the work of local and international architects who have shaped the built environment of the city over the past 25 years. Divided into three zones, Made, Make, and Making, the exhibition aims for a comprehensive chronology of Hong Kong’s past and future development through a display of important architectural innovations as well as conceptual projects. See m3beyond.hk.
The first solo exhibition of high-rise architect Ole Scheeren, who founded his eponymous firm in 2010, will be displayed at the ZKM|Center for Art and Media this winter. The German architect, who was born in Karlsruhe, began his career at the OMA office in Rotterdam and became known for his monumental and experimental projects, including the award-winning China Central Television Station in Beijing and the Inter- lace building in Singapore. See zkm.de/en.
Ongoing Exhibitions
Presented by the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union, this exhibit features more than 70 works by 45 artists and architects including Olafur Eliasson, Peter Eisenman, Eyal Weizman, and Greg Lynn. “Model Behavior” was curated by the Anyone Cooperation and asks how architectural models reflect and contribute to changing behaviors beyond the realm of design. See cooper.edu.
N*thing is Possible installation view. Photo courtesy Potato Head
Over the past 12 years, the Potato Head Beach Club in Seminyak, Bali, has transformed from a traditional resort to a modernist creative village with a zero-waste mission, with help from AMO, the research arm of Rem Koolhaas’s firm OMA. Designed and curated by AMO/OMA, this exhibit at the National Design Centre of Singapore explores zero-waste journeys through the firm’s work with the resort, showing failures as well as successes to indicate how a regenerative blueprint is possible. See link.potatohead.co.
Safdie Architects presents an exhibition of the 55-year-old practice’s unbuilt designs at the Boston Architectural College. The exhibit showcases models, drawings, and sketches used in the creative process, alongside news articles, photographs, commentary, and artifacts to offer broader context and reveal the untold stories behind the designs. For more, see the-bac.edu.
A collaboration between the Irish Architecture Foundation and the country’s housing agency, this exhibit at the Science Gallery Dublin showcases eight architect-led solutions to address housing-related issues such as affordability, resiliency, density, and quality of life. Proposals include “Eco:Cube,” a modular housing concept consisting of interlocked cubes that can generate a variety of one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom homes through a process of stacking and rotation, and “Start Spreading the Mews,” which looks at how new housing supply can be generated in parts of Ireland by exempting suburban laneways from overly stringent planning codes. See housingunlocked.ie.
Hip-Hop Architecture is a burgeoning design movement led by a loosely organized group of designers who use hip-hop in their approach to the built environment. This exhibit at the Museum of Design Atlanta features a selection of work from a canon that has emerged over the past 25 years, with projects ranging from experimental installations to building designs and urban-development proposals. Curated and designed by architect Sekou Cooke, whose work was included in the 2021 MoMA show Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, the exhibit presents a collective vision for alternative forms of architectural expression and practice. For more, see museumofdesign.org.
Don and Mera Rubell have been buying contemporary art since 1965 and currently possess a wide-ranging collection that is one of the world’s largest. The first Rubell Museum opened in Miami in 1993; this month, the foundation is opening a second, a 32,000-square-foot space in a former public high school renovated by Beyer Blinder Belle in Washington, D.C. Their inaugural exhibition title is an homage to the 1971 album by Marvin Gaye, an alumnus of the former school. The show will feature over 200 works by 40 artists, including a 20-part ink-and-gouache series by Keith Haring that the artist completed in one sitting while listening to the music of Gaye and Bob Marley. For more, see rubellmuseum.org
Two panels from Keith Haring's Untitled (Against All Odds) series (1989), on view at the Rubell Museum. Images courtesy the Rubell Museum
On display at the Center for Architecture, this exhibit presents the work of AIA New York’s 2020 competition of the same name. Six practices were selected as representative of new and innovative firms in the city: BRANDT: HAFERD, Byrony Roberts Studio, City-group, GRT Architects, New Affiliates, and ANY. All of them have demonstrated engagement with the city and its citizens. See centerforarchitecture.org.
The first solo exhibition of award-winning architect Marshall Brown, this show at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art features 25 of his architectural collages. The artworks, which Brown calls chimeras, after the lion-goat-snake figure of Greek mythology, use photographs of existing buildings, whose elements are combined to create new architectural forms. See sbma.net.
Over the course of his 50-year career, architectural photographer Wayne Thom captured over 2,600 projects in Southeast Asia, Hawaii, and the Western United States. Raised in Hong Kong, Wayne settled in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. There he got his first big break from the late-modernist architect A. Quincy Jones and quickly became the preferred photographer for Southern California’s leading firms. On display at the University of Southern California Pacific Asia Museum, which acquired his archive in 2015, is a selection of Thom’s photographs of 50 projects. See pacificasiamuseum.com.
Presented at the Het Nieuwe Instituut as part of the city’s first-ever Solar Biennale, this exhibit explores the design potential of solar power. Curated by Berlin-based designer Matylda Kyzykowski, the show includes work from an international group of architects and designers (including Mária Telkes, Michael Jantzen, and architecture firm Jessen Vollenweder) to construct a vision of a world run by solar energy. See energyshow.hetnieuweinstituut.nl.
Events
The 18th edition of the Miami Beach–based design fair is curated around the theme of The Golden Age: Looking to the Future, which celebrates both real and imagined times of prosperity past as well as a sustainable vision for the future. Galleries from around the world, including AGO Projects, Friedman Benta, and Diletante42, will exhibit furniture, lighting, and art objects, while an accompanying series of lectures and panel discussions will explore broader themes of contemporary architecture and design. See designmiami.com.
Driving the Human is an artistic and scientific collaborative formed in 2020 with support from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment. This three-day festival represents the culmination of three years of transdisciplinary collaboration, research, and design that relates to the climate crisis. The event centers around seven prototypes that respond to complex contemporary scenarios, such as the potential of AI-driven design or human-bacteria collaboration to mitigate climate change. For more information, see drivingthehuman.com.
Competitions
Leading surfacing manufacturer Formica has opened their annual student competition. This year’s challenge asks entrants to submit a color rendering and project statement for a furniture design that is informed by the con- cept of maximalism. Student submissions must include three or more Formica- or FENIX-brand products, including at least one from the SurfaceSet 2022 collection. For more, visit formica.com.
