Texture City
dal 21/7/2004 al 20/8/2004
Segnalato da
21/7/2004
Texture City
Van Alen Institute, New York
A reinvestigation of the Roman piazza. Texture City focuses on the city as process rather than a static form. This interactive installation explores what it means to design for an active and inclusive public life today. The project is the culmination of architect Marc Boutin s research into the changing nature of one of the archetypal public spaces in the world, the Roman piazza. Key to Boutin's investigation are the themes of temporality and public engagement, which he positions as fundamental qualities of the city.
A reinvestigation of the Roman piazza
Texture City focuses on the city as process rather than a static form. This interactive installation explores what it means to design for an active and inclusive public life today. The project is the culmination of architect Marc Boutin s research into the changing nature of one of the archetypal public spaces in the world, the Roman piazza. Key to Boutin s investigation are the themes of temporality and public engagement, which he positions as fundamental qualities of the city.
This is the first US showing of Texture City. It was previously exhibited in public spaces in Rome. This engaging installation consists of three glass and steel units that are animated by models of Boutin s design proposals, found objects, drawings, images and texts collected and constructed in Rome. Time-lapse photography and a continuous audio component immerse viewers in the sights and sounds of life in Rome s public squares. Boutin s recordings capture the daily and seasonal cycles of occupation in piazzas such as the Campo di Fiori. Together with Boutin s photographs of the city, texts, plans and design proposals are images from the media and iconic stills from films such as Roman Holiday. Boutin s work reveals the multiple layers of information that form our personal images of a place and how these mental maps help us navigate the city.
Coining the phrase Emergent Public Territories, Boutin explores the idea of negotiable spaces within the urban environment that are not structured spaces but ones that continually change shape and character as they are used by city dwellers. This is played out in the exhibition in physical form. As viewers navigate Texture City they become active agents in the unfolding of its ideas; their shadows are projected onto the walls and overlap with the existing images emphasizing the multiple layers inherent in public space.
Texture City continues Van Alen Institute s research and presentation of approaches to the design of the public realm. The show expands on ideas put forward in the Institute s recent exhibition OPEN: new designs for public space, which examined sites around the world, newly created or transformed and illustrated the complexity of integrating multiple, and sometimes conflicting meanings and functions into the design of public space. Texture City also relates to the Institute s future exhibition, Variable City, opening this fall, which also takes as its premise the idea of alternative approaches to interpreting life in public space and looks at how performance art can be used as a tool for urban regeneration.
About Marc Boutin
Born in Ottawa, Marc Boutin has graduate degrees in architecture and architectural history from the University of British Columbia and the University of Calgary. He teaches graduate architecture and urban design studios within the Environmental Design department at the University of Calgary. Boutin is a practicing architect working on projects for the inner-city neighborhood of Ramsay, Calgary, an addition and renovation of the New Varscona Theatre, Edmonton, and a study for the Urban Campus Initiative for the University of Calgary. Texture City is the result of Boutin s 2002 Canadian Rome Prize.
About Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public Architecture
Van Alen Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving design in the public realm through a program of exhibitions, competitions, publications, lectures, and forums. Based in New York, the Institute initiates interdisciplinary collaborations between designers, students, educators, community leaders, and the public.
OPENING EVENT: Wednesday July 21, 2004
Symposium 6.30 - 7.30pm, reception to follow
PARTICIPANTS: Marc Boutin, Marc Boutin Architect with James Slade, Slade Architecture and Michael Bell, architect and associate
Hours: Monday Friday 12-6pm
Admission: FREE
EXHIBITION: July 22 - August 20, 2004
Address: Van Alen Institute
30 W 22 Street, 6th Floor (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
Subway: N, R to 23rd St (at Fifth Avenue) F, V to 23rd St (at Sixth Avenue) 1, 9 to 23rd street (at Seventh Avenue)