reconstituted design

Sundogs
Café drop-ceiling panel proposal for the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art (UICA)
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2009.

In the summer of 2009, a national call for proposals went out for architectural interior installation art and design for the new UICA building — completion date of Spring 2010. The stipulation and criteria stated that all designs had to utilize recycled or “green” materials with a maximum $3000 budget. Potential designers had to select one space from a choice of four: the reception desk, the ceramics studio ceiling, the film theatre ceiling, and the café ceiling and submit one proposal. The initial thought for this design came from an e-mailed message from somebody at Unity Christian High School of Orange City, Iowa asking if anyone had need of used CDs. The project began as a collaboration | discussion with Paul Hanaoka and Jon Dykstra.

A panel, which is displayed above, shows recycled CD disks snapped to clear jewel cases mounted to 24” x 24” acoustic ceiling panels, painted black. Identical and subsequent panels would fill the drop-ceiling metal grid system.