Atelier Hitoshi Abe Exhibition, SCI-Arc Gallery Show, US Architecture Projects News

Atelier Hitoshi Abe Exhibition, LA

Architectural Show at SCI-Arc Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA

Jun 1, 2010

Location: SCI-Arc Gallery

Atelier Hitoshi Abe : len-tic-u-lar-is

Jul 30 – Sep 12, 2010

Friday, July 30, 7 pm: Exhibition discussion with Architect Hitoshi Abe and SCI-Arc Director Eric Owen Moss. Followed by a reception for the exhibition opening.

len-tic-u-lar-is, a new exhibition by Los Angeles and Sendai-based architecture firm Atelier Hitoshi Abe (AHA), will be on view from July 30 to September 12, 2010, in the SCI-Arc Gallery at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).

Atelier Hitoshi Abe photo of Lenticularis from SCI-Arc

Atelier Hitoshi Abe SCI-Arc Exhibition

Lenticularis [len‚tik·yə′lar·əs] is a lens-shaped cloud formation that occurs at high altitudes as strong winds blow over and around rough terrain and mountains. This tension between moisture, changing wind conditions, and the rugged terrain below produces a myriad of atmospheric phenomena, but a very particular formal effect characterized by often striking symmetry, ephemeral smoothness, and transparency.

Each cloud formation is a unique visual index of the dialogue between the atmospheric conditions, geography, and terrain of a particular place at a particular moment in time. In this sense, the lenticularis mediates between the sky and the ground, and unites them.

Atelier Hitoshi Abe photos from SCI-Arc

The first architectural subject that AHA will tackle in Los Angeles is the design of a new large-scale roof over the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC) Plaza, designed by Isamu Noguchi. For this plaza, Noguchi created a singular landscape inspired by a Zen garden that isolates itself from the surrounding townscape. Although a very important place for the community, the JACCC Plaza is too exposed to the climate of Los Angeles to host various activities, and the walls that enclose the plaza conceal it from the neighborhood and make it invisible to the city.

A roof is proposed to enhance the functional and symbolic value of the JACCC Plaza to the community by providing a climatic shelter that expresses the existence of the plaza to the urban condition. In order to accomplish these objectives, what needs to be realized is a large-scale roof floating above the plaza that will not touch Noguchi’s Zen garden, nor isolate Noguchi’s terrain from the Los Angeles sky, but instead mediate them.

The proposed scheme is an extremely lightweight membrane structure that behaves, in concept, like a bicycle wheel. This lenticularis-like giant roof spans 186 feet and includes a 50-foot overhang, which makes it possible to cover half an acre of the plaza’s surface without touching Noguchi’s work.

It consists of a 520-foot-long perimeter ring beam, supported by four sets of columns that fall outside of the area of the plaza. Fifty-six tension cables extend from the ring beam and are gathered at a central sprocket, surfaced with mirror-polished stainless steel panels creating a “Cloud-scope.” The Cloud-scope provides visual transparency towards the sky and enhances the openness of the plaza, while its unique sectional profile reflects both the sky and the terrain and fuses the boundary between them.

Exhibited at the SCI-Arc Gallery is a 1:7 scale model of the proposed roof structure. len-tic-u-lar-is has been developed in collaboration with Buro Happold Consulting Engineers.

About Hitoshi Abe

Hitoshi Abe is Chair and Professor of UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design. He is also principal of Atelier Hitoshi Abe, founded in 1993 in Sendai, Japan, with a second office now in Los Angeles.

Known for architecture that is spatially complex and structurally innovative, Atelier Hitoshi Abe has been published internationally and received numerous awards, including most recently the 2009 Architectural Institute of Japan Award for SSM/Kanno Museum, the 2009 Contract World Award for Aoba-tei, the 2008 SIA-Getz Prize for Emergent Architecture in Asia, and the 2007 World Architecture Award for M/Kanno Museum.

Some of AHA’s key projects located in Japan include the Aoba-tei restaurant, the Sasaki Office Factory for Prosthetics, F-town, which is an eat-and-drink building filled with bars and restaurants in Sendai, the Miyagi Stadium in Rifu, SSM/Kanno Museum in Shiogama, the 9-tsubo House “Tall” in Kanagawa, and the Reihoku Community Hall in Kumamoto.

Abe’s work is the subject of two monographs: Hitoshi Abe Flicker (TOTO) from the 2005 exhibition at the Gallery Ma in Tokyo and Hitoshi Abe, published by Phaidon in 2009.

Public Programs

Friday, July 30, 7pm: Exhibition discussion with Hitoshi Abe and Eric Owen Moss, followed by the opening reception

Hours

The school and the galleries are open to the public daily from 10am to 6pm.

Atelier Hitoshi Abe

SCI-Arc Architecture Lectures Information

Location: Los Angeles, California, USA

Architecture in Los Angeles

Contemporary Architecture in Los Angeles

Los Angeles Architecture Designs – Selection

The Getty Center
Richard Meier & Partners ; Robert Irwin; Emmet L. Wemple & Associates; Thierry W. Despont

photo © Alice McRae
The Getty Center Building