Event 1: Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio

Event 1: Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio

One of the wonderful distractions at the Hammer before entering Provocations

I caught Thomas Heatherwick's Provocations show on the very last hour of the very last day they had it open. We had arrived at the Hammer a few hours earlier specifically to see this show, but we were sidetracked by the other great things happening at the Hammer and had also forgotten their early closing time that evening.

A hairy building

via: http://hammer.ucla.edu/fileadmin/_processed_/csm_791_01_HR_UKPavilion_CREDIT_IwanBaan_f1cc74ea13.jpg

Upon entering Provocations, we took our time reading each placard and were very impressed by the layout and curation of the show. Each project is introduced as Heatherwick Studio's answer to a simple question. For example, the photo shown above is an answer to "How can a building represent a nation?". Other questions include "Can a plank be a piece of a furniture?" and "Can you make a park out of a desert?". Heatherwick Studio's solutions to each question always incorporates a conceptual twist that is both delightful and unexpected.

Heatherwick Studio's answer to "Can you squeeze a chair out of a machine, the way you squeeze toothpaste out of a tube?"

An impressive feat of engineering / architecture / construction - an all glass bridge proof of concept

My girlfriend, who is a designer at an architecture firm, brought to my attention how collaborative such a process must be to conceive of these works. For an architecture firm to design works like this, they must have a deep understanding of engineering and construction, both huge fields of themselves. For them to push these materials to the edge of what they can do (for example the all glass bridge with no internal metal supports), they must be masters of both form and design, as well as structural integrity.

A more concrete model of the all-glass bridge design. Very impressed by this project. 

In viewing this show with Desma 9 on my mind, I was very inspired by what a synergy of art, technology and science could mean in the realm of architecture. I always thought that architecture itself was already a manifestation of the three fields working together, but I now understand how much farther it can be explored through an active dialogue between the "art / design" heavy thinkers and the "engineering and technology" groups to ultimately create works that push expand the notion of what is possible by humankind.

PROOF