Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined at the Royal Academy of Arts
25 January - 6 April '14
London
Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined sees the Main Galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts transformed by seven architectural practices from around the world.
The RA has commissioned the architects to create site-specific installations; the shared brief is to explore the essential elements of architecture. Instead of representations of buildings in the form of models, plans or photographs, the RA is re-defining the traditional architectural exhibition to immerse visitors in a multi-sensory experience.
Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined considers architecture from the angle of the human encounter: how vision, touch, sound and memory play a role in our perceptions of space, proportion, materials and light.
The architects include well-known and emerging practices and hail from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds. Collaborating across the globe on this project are: Grafton Architects (Ireland); Diébédo Francis Kéré (Germany/Burkina Faso); Kengo Kuma (Japan); Li Xiaodong (China); Pezo von Ellrichshausen (Chile); Eduardo Souto de Moura and Álvaro Siza (Portugal). The architects have been carefully selected to form a group whose distinct approaches share similarities and offer contrasts. They all create work that is particularly responsive to people and place. They share an understanding of the sensorial capacity of architecture and its materiality.
The interventions within the Academy’s Grade II* listed galleries will engage visitors with structures, textures, sounds, spaces and even scents. A monumental structure by Pezo von Ellrichshausen, occupying the largest of the galleries, will challenge our sense of perspective; inspired by a Ko-Do, the Japanese smell ceremony, Kuma will highlight the importance of scent; Kéré’s tunnel will invite visitors to physically interact with the structure’s fabric; a labyrinth by Li Xiaodong will create a sense of containment and compression in contrast to Grafton’s exploration of light. Siza and Souto de Moura’s subtle installations will encourage visitors to consider the architectural history of the building.
A specially made film will provide visitors with the opportunity to ‘meet’ the architects. The footage will present a range of their previous building projects, transporting the viewer from a house on the rugged Chilean coast to a school in Burkina Faso, Africa. Filmed interviews with the architects will provide further insights about their work and inspirations.
Installation by Diebedo Francis Kere. Photo (c) Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2014. Photography: James Harris / (c) Kere Architecture
Installation by Kengo Kuma. Photo (c) Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2014. Photography: James Harris.
Installation by Kengo Kuma. Photo (c) Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2014. Photography: James Harris.
Installation (Blue Pavilion) by Pezo von Ellrichshausen. Photo (c) Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2014. Photography: James Harris.
Installation (Blue Pavilion) by Pezo von Ellrichshausen. Photo (c) Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2014. Photography: James Harris.
