Many architects make names for themselves by experimenting with building materials. But Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu, the married couple who ditched budding careers in New York to form Oyler Wu Collaborative in Los Angeles nearly 10 years ago, are the rare ones who've exploited the design potential of polypropylene rope—hundreds of thousands of feet of it. “We're both a bit obsessed with lines, and using rope has let us explore this idea in our installations,” says Wu.
These experimental projects, which include a soaring canopy, a sculpture wall that appears kinetic, and most recently The Cube, a steel-and-rope affair for the 2013 Beijing Biennale, have become the firm's calling card, much the way that cutting-edge houses launched the careers of Los Angeles'based predecessors such as Thom Mayne and Eric Owen Moss. Not that the couple planned it that way. “We started doing installations to keep ourselves working when we didn't have clients,” says Oyler. They've also reaped the benefits of being on the faculty at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), an institution that both encourages their why-not-try-it? spirit and has given them a regular venue to showcase the results. Oyler and Wu have built a project side by side with their students on the campus nearly every year since 2008.
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