Installation: The Latest Architecture and News

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A luminous tetrahedral mesh spanning 10 meters, (Ultra) Light Network is the latest 3D printed innovation achieved by Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) Professors Felix Raspall and Carlos Banon, who were also behind this mesh pavilion last year. Displayed at this year’s iLight Marina Bay in Singapore, the interactive light sculpture is an exploration of how full-scale 3D printed components can create a system to “address not only structural requirements but also power transmission, and information communication within a seamless and continuous aesthetic.”

Suspended over its visitors, the display engages the public through responses to their movements below, controlled by over 50,000 distinct LED pixels and their parent algorithm. This is made possible through five Teensy microcontrollers, working in conjunction with three ultrasonic sensors at the base of the structure, resulting in a lively and illuminating experience.

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Marrying the great expanses of the American west with a series of mirrored faces, MIRAGE is an installation situated in the Southern California desert and the work of Doug Aitken, an American artist, and filmmaker. An experimental adaptation of the traditional suburban ranch-style house, the sculpture hones in on architecture’s relationship with its landscape, manifesting itself as a life-sized kaleidoscope.

The California Ranch Style house was first designed by a small collective of architects in the 1920s and 30s, inspired by the spatial fluidity of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work and melded with the local single storey homes that belonged to ranchers. Following the Second World War, the simplicity of this housing typology resulted in its quick rise in popularity, adopted by commercial builders to match the rapid urbanization of the American countryside.

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A giant, smooth coral? A cloud-like barnacle? A woman's floral swimming cap?”

Such phrases are how art and architecture studio Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY attempts to describe it’s latest curvilinear project, Under Magnitude.

Suspended within Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center, the installation is a two-storey structure, formed from a network of branches that are synthesized by a single, smooth white surface. The form expresses the studio’s aim to “unite surface, structure, and space in order to create a new kind of experience.”

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In collaboration with Kistefos Museum, photographer Frédéric Boudin has captured Jeppe Hein's installation "Path of Silence," now permanently located in Jevnaker near Oslo. The sculpture is inspired by the topography of the Kistefos Sculpture Park, creating a conversation between the installation and its site by adapting the park's stepped slope and terraces to a freeform profile.

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The KulturRegion Stuttgart successfully wrapped its three-week Aufstiege ("Ascents") Light Art Festival in October. Curated by Joachim Fleischer, the festival showcases work by over 40 artists from 10 countries. The 37 installations were available for viewing nightly from 8 p.m. to midnight across 25 cities near Stuttgart, and particularly popular exhibits have been extended.

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Chilean studio Pezo von Ellrichshausen has erected a temporary wooden tower of “an ambiguous” scale in the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris. Named the “Deci Pavilion,” the structure is made up of ten stacked octagonal wooden drums of decreasing size. While in reality only large enough to hold one visitor at a time, the column’s form and relationship to its surroundings give it the presence of a much larger structure.

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Adding to the ever-changing public landscape of Times Square, German artist and architect J. Mayer H. has unveiled XXX TIMES SQUARE WITH LOVE, three bright-pink, X-shaped custom lounge chairs that allow visitors to lie back and take in the cacophony of lights and sounds for which Times Square is famous. Originally inspired by the “X-like” intersection of Broadway and 7th Avenue, the name also serves as a cheeky reference to the adult theaters and sex shops that once lined the square before its revitalization in the 1990s.

A photo posted by Burning Man (@burningman) on Aug 4, 2016 at 1:27pm PDT

Burning Man 2016 is underway in the temporary city of Black Rock City, Nevada – meaning for one week, thousands of festival goers will romp through the desert taking pictures of the hundreds of art and architectural installations constructed for the event. This year's theme is "DaVinci's Workshop," inspiring sculptures based off the artist's famous inventions and artworks, including a large-scale interpretation of the Vitruvian Man on a circular frame.

Read on to see some of the best structures and installations found at Burning Man 2016. 

Janet Echelman has completed her most recent aerial net sculpture in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. Made up of over 35 miles of technical twine woven into 242,800 knots, the sculptures adds a new ephemeral presence to the sky above the city’s new LeBauer Park. Entitled “Where We Met,” the sculpture’s form and composition were inspired by Greensboro’s history as a railroad and textile hub.

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Currently on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art, Award-winning African architect Diébédo Francis Kéré has created Colorscape, a installation made from steel and brightly-colored fiber, to accompany his first solo show in the United States. The exhibition is titled The Architecture of Francis Kéré: Building with Community, and features of a retrospective of the architect’s career that includes material artifacts, tools and scale-models created for stand-out projects in both Africa and Europe.

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“They are projects that cannot be bought, cannot be owned, cannot be possess, to be kept; they are projects in total freedom. Nobody can own this, because if you own something, it’s not free.” -Christo

In this latest video from NOWNESS, Bulgarian artist Christo explains the fleeting nature of his most recent work, The Floating Piers, a floating dock system wrapped in yellow fabric that connects the towns of Sulzano and Peschiera Maraglio to the island of San Paolo in Italy’s Lake Iseo. First conceived by Christo alongside his late wife and creative partner Jeanne-Claude in 1970, The Floating Piers is in the midst of its 16 day run, lasting until July 3rd. After the conclusion of the exhibition, all components will be removed and industrially recycled, leaving its site precisely the way it was found.

Beginning this week, and lasting for only sixteen days, visitors to the Italian Lake Iseo can "walk on water." The Floating Piers is the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, based on an idea first conceived in 1970. Built using 100,000 square meters of shimmering yellow fabric, carried by a modular floating dock system of 220,000 high-density polyethylene cubes, the installation—which sits just above water level—undulates with the movement of the lake.

According to Italian news source, Leggo, two people were "seriously injured" and the installation was "evacuated" on its opening day due to the quantity of visitors and inclement weather conditions.

Those who experience The Floating Piers will feel like they are walking on water – or perhaps the back of a whale.

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Israel has unveiled its theme for the 2016 Venice Biennale: “LifeObject: Merging Architecture and Biology”. Their pavilion will be comprised of a large-scale sculptural installation and seven speculative architectural scenarios relating to Israel. The exhibition will focus on the relationship between biology and architecture, acting as a “research oriented platform.”

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Colorful, woven spinning tops decorated the lawn at Houston’s Discovery Green park from November 14, 2015-March 22, 2016 as part of an interactive art installation by Mexico City designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena. Dubbed Los Trompos, the installation featured twenty, 3D structures that also doubled as seating. Only two or more people working together could make the tops spin, “fostering an engaging connection.”

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