April 2023: Dates and Events
RECORD's monthly list of upcoming and ongoing exhibitions, events, and competitions.
Upcoming Exhibitions
More with Less: Reimagining Architecture for a Changing WorldNewcastle, England
April 22–September 10, 2023
Led by British architect Sir Terry Farrell, the Farrell Centre is a new public exhibition space and research hub dedicated to architecture and urbanism, housed in a former 19th--century department store. For its inaugural exhibition, the center asked four architectural practices—Dress for the Weather, McCloy + Muchemwa, Office S&M, and the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment—to create installations that propose new design responses to the climate emergency. See farrellcentre.org.uk.
Paris
May 10–August 7, 2023
The Centre Pompidou presents the largest retrospective so far dedicated to the prolific career of Pritzker laureate Norman Foster. Occupying 23,000 square feet, the exhibition includes drawings, workbooks, and prototypes of almost 100 projects from the past six decades, including the Carré d’Art in Nîmes, France (1993), the Hong Kong International Airport (1998), and the Apple Park in Cupertino, California (2017). For more, see centrepompidou.fr/en.
Ongoing Exhibitions
Technoscape: The Architecture of EngineersRome
Through April 16, 2023
On view at the Museo Nazionale MAXXI in Rome, this exhibition explores the relationship between structural engineering, whether vernacular or avant-garde, and the invasion of technology into our operating and living spaces. The first section of the show, developed in collaboration with universities and research centers, includes installations and interactive pavilions that allow visitors to understand the role played today by scientific and technological sectors in conjunction with architecture: from “smart” devices for city management to the return of vintage, low-tech assembly techniques. The second explores the work of structural engineers from the post-war period to the present day, highlighting buildings such as the Beaubourg and the Sydney Opera House. See maxxi.art/en.
New York
The Italian architect, who cofounded the radical design studio Archizoom in the 1960s, presents his third solo exhibition with the Friedman Benda Galley in Chelsea. On display are three new bodies of work by the architect, titled Roots, Germinal Seats, and Buildings, emphasizing natural and reused materials in household objects such as chairs, cabinets, and lamps. See friedmanbenda.com.
This exhibit at the Museum of Architectural Drawing displays over 110 works by the late Italian architect, many of which are being shown publicly for the first time. The exhibit is divided into three sections, titled Corpus Mediolanensis, Works for Berlin, and Insula. The latter series, from which the exhibition draws its title, is a collection of drawings by Rossi that were inspired by architectural models from antiquity. For more information, see tchoban-foundation.de.
In her first solo exhibition in the United States, at the Art Institute of Chicago, artist Himali Singh Soin presents an immersive imagining of the history and future of “nuclear” landscapes. The multimedia exhibit, which includes poetry, music and video, textiles, ceramics, drawings, and a therapeutic garden, was designed by the artist in close collaboration with the local architecture office Future Firm. See artic.edu.
Montreal-based architect François Dallegret, a central figure of the architectural avant-garde of the 1960s and ’70s, is known for his meticulous designs for futuristic objects and spaces. Building on the 2011 exhibition GOD & CO: Beyond the Bubble, the exhibit, at the Yale Architecture Gallery, includes drawings, objects, films, and ephemera from six decades of Dallegret’s practice. For more information, see architecture.yale.edu.
This large-scale exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts gathers close to 250 works by American and Canadian women dating from the mid-19th century to today. Organized with the Stewart Program for Modern Design, works are displayed against the historical backdrop of the social and political issues that have shaped the careers of women designers over the past 150 years. They include a broad range of objects from artisanal craft to industrial design, including ceramics, glass, metalwork, jewelry, textiles, furniture, consumer products, graphics, fashion, and interiors. See mbam.qc.ca.
This exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin explores the vast body of work produced by architects and designers in the former Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Displaying both realized and conceptual spaces imagined by architects and designers from behind the Iron Curtain, the exhibit brings to light work from figures little known in the western world, among them Czech architect Věra Machoninová, designers Sirje Runge and Bruno Tomberg of Estonia, and German architect Lutz Brandt. For more, see smb.museum/en.
For this exhibit at the Roca London Gallery, architect Hamza Shaikh brings a wide range of architectural imaginings by his contemporaries into dialogue with historical precedents from the Drawing Matter archive. Drawings by Mies van der Rohe, John Hejduk, and Le Corbusier are displayed side-by-side with products of the latest virtual technologies, to show how digital architecture follows and expands upon the profession’s drawing tradition. See rocalondongallery.com
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The Vitra Design Museum presents an exhibit designed by Milan-based design studio Formafantasma on the history and future of the modern garden, which argues for horticulture as a potentially radical means of experimentation and incubation. With a broad scope of inquiry that encompasses contemporary community gardens, green facades, and vertical urban farms, the exhibit includes work by landscape architects Roberto Burle Marx and Mien Ruys, and artist Derek Jarman. See design-museum.de.
Events
The six-day architecture and design festival returns for its ninth iteration this year with a roster of events, installations, and exhibitions throughout the city. Featured are design proposals and concepts that celebrate the public realm and civic life. See concentrico.es/en.
Returning for its 11th year, the architecture and design festival attracts over 300,000 visitors to the city to explore a diverse roster of talks, exhibits, installations, and walking tours. See festival.nycxdesign.org.
The 18th edition of the Biennale is curated by Scottish-Ghanaian architect Lesley Lokko, who founded the Graduate School of Architecture in Johannesburg in 2015 and the African Futures Institute in Accra, Ghana, in 2020. This year’s theme is “Laboratory of the Future”; the citywide exhibition features contributions by 89 participants, over half of whom are from Africa or the African diaspora. See labiennale.org.
In light of federal funding now available for infrastructure repair, the Institute for Public Architecture is hosting a free one-day symposium to discuss reuse opportunities for the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, which has slowly been falling into disrepair due to decades of deferred maintenance. Four diverse panels will convene at the Harbor School on Governors Island to discuss highway removal, alternative transportation systems, community land trusts, and community visions for the future, led by experts, policy-makers, and community members from Brooklyn and Queens. See bqe2053.org
An annual fair that has been held in the city since 1969, NeoCon gathers industry professionals to learn about and experience the latest innovations in commercial interior design. This year, nearly 1 million square feet of exhibitions will display products from over 400 exhibitors, including both leading companies and emerging designers. See neocon.com.
Competitions
The competition, presented in part by AIA California, is seeking design proposals for an agricultural center in Allensworth, the first town in the state to be founded, financed, and governed by African-Americans. Emphasizing goals of decarbonization, equity, and resilience, the competition brief invites students and professionals to design proposals that recognize and advance the site’s aspiration to become a destination for sustainable agriculture and Black history. For more, see architectureatzero.com.
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