The Hartell Gallery Architecture Show, Cornell University Exhibition, Lantern Sandnes, Design

vers un climat building (with) the unstable

Architecture Exhibition by AWP at The Hartell Gallery, Cornell University, NY

Aug 7, 2013

Architecture Exhibition by AWP

vers un climat building (with) the unstable

An exhibition by AWP

The nocturnal face of architecture: how buildings contribute to the urban nightscape

awp (marc armengaud, matthias armengaud, alessandra cianchetta)

The John Hartell Gallery, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

26 August – 16 September 2013

‘The Lantern, Norwegian Wood’, Sandes, Norway:

photograph courtesy Atelier Oslo/AWP

The night is a potent subject: its veil of darkness can hide imperfections and transform appearances. In cities it’s both the calm retreat from the bustling day and the beginning of social life, at a different pace.

AWP, Office for Territorial Reconfiguration, (Marc Armengaud, Matthias Armengaud, Alessandra Cianchetta) has spent several years looking at the ways in which climate, time, light and the atmosphere influence architectural design. The exhibition at Cornell is the culmination of a show at the Pavillon d’Arsenal (Paris La Nuit, Nocturnal Chronicles 23/5-6/10 2013) and a book (Nightscapes, nocturnal landscapes, 2009) which illustrate the nocturnal face of architecture, proving that buildings, like light, have the capacity to evolve, change, fluctuate and perform as active participants in our cities.

Featuring both realized and proposed projects by AWP, the exhibition also reveals the practice’s in depth research on the many ways in which the intangible dimensions of architecture – such as atmosphere, climate, and light – materialize in buildings. Part of AWP’s ongoing challenge is to translate recurrent themes of impermanence, evolution, and the uncontrollable into design.

photograph courtesy Atelier Oslo/AWP

Projects on show include The Lantern Pavilion in Sandnes, Norway (2008 – 2009), a striking combination of the avant-garde and the traditional: a transparent gathering space raised on wooden stilts. At night the structure’s interior lights reflect off the glass exterior to create a warm and welcoming glow. The Troll installation (2003 – 2008) is an experimental project exploring mobility in urban spaces at night, while the design for the LAM Museum Sculpture Park (2010) springs from the desire to reinterpret, liberate and enhance the definition of outdoor spaces, strengthening their relation to architecture and sculptures; the design includes a luminous installation that enable a night program on site.

La Defense Night-time Plan (2013) will also be featured in the exhibition, AWP ’s master plan for the development of Paris’ Central Business D istrict. The plan outlines a long-term evolution strategy for the site and identifies possibilities to develop a new night-time identity for the area, among many other issues.

photograph courtesy Atelier Oslo/AWP

Academic and theoretical work will also be included from the P aris la Nuit exhibition, illustrating the challenges that night poses to urbanism, landscape design and architecture. Presenting carefully collated data on mobility, logistics, maintenance, employment, tourism, transgressions, services and culture, the exhibition documents and analyses the metropolitan Parisian nightscape from 1789 to today. Scholarly work from other AWP publications, including their book Nightscapes, will also be on show.

Architecture Exhibition by AWP information from AWP

AWP Architects

Cornell School Architecture

Location: Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America