Religious tolerance as conveyed by the architectural design of Stanley Tigerman

Stanley Tigerman
Inter-faith Chapel Competition, Model, 2004
Painted wood and Styrofoam
Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
Gift of Stanley Tigerman, 2012.620

This is a piece from the Sharing Space: Creative Intersections in Architecture and Design exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago—the exhibition is on view until August 18, 2013 in Galleries 283–285.

Tigerman’s layout metaphorically suggests gathering around a reflecting pool in a campfire fashion. This circular re-formation centers on love and unity that suggests transformation.

The following is information from the exhibition didactics referencing this work by Tigerman:

Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman is a major figure in postmodern architecture whose projects are always framed and inspired by heady concepts of irony, rupture, humor, and allusion. Since the 1960s, his architectural practice has covered a wide range of territory, from elaborate, yet subversive single-family houses to sensitive designs for disadvantaged children and the homeless. Exquisitely created scale models form an important thread throughout his career and communicate the complex tectonics, colors, and geometries of his work.

Regarding the inter-faith chapel concept, “geometry allows Tigerman to create subtle references to history and cultural practices.… The chapel’s 12 pavilions represent geometric abstractions of traditional religious buildings around the world, aligned around an empty center or universal space to face the correct cardinal directions.”

Read More......

Chicago Design Museum’s 2013 Pop-up Exhibition “Work at Play”

The entry to the Chicago Design Museum’s 2013 Pop-up Exhibition titled, Work at Play. We had a delightful chat with Stuart Hall, gallery assistant, who stands in the background of this image.
 
A very interesting design exhibition occurred last month in Chicago. The 2013 Pop-up Exhibition titled Work at Play opened in conjunction with Chicago Design Week and ran for the entire month of June. Block Thirty-Seven, located at 108 North State Street, was the venue for one of Chicago Loop Alliance’s newest Pop-Up Art Loop galleries, a 17,000-square-foot space on the building's third floor. One of the charters of Pop-Up Art Loop is to: “Transform vacant Loop storefronts into vibrant temporary art galleries throughout the year. Taking its name from one of the original 58 city blocks established in 1830, Block Thirty Seven was there at Chicago’s birth. Today it stands as an iconic symbol of Chicago’s future.” The building is a symbol of regeneration and one of Chicago’s newest downtown landmarks.

The premise for the exhibition states, “For many, the compulsion to create is constant. It’s unstoppable. Beyond the hours at the office, we create, we make–we play. In an attempt to find our own voice, we may stumble upon a visual language that can speak for and, perhaps, inspire others. This year, we celebrate the blurred line between work and play.”

Here are a couple of examples from the exhibition:


Matthew Hoffman
Fresh Start/Start Fresh — 2013
44 x 77

Artist statement: “Fresh Start/Start Fresh consists of a rotational two-word ambigram created from a single connecting line. This optical illusion reminds us that every day can be a fresh start.”

Note: Shown above is my test of Matthew’s work where I took the liberty of playing with his word image of “fresh” by rotating and stacking it underneath. —thank you.


Thomas Quinn
Everything We See is a Perspective, Not the Truth — 2013
When viewing at a certain point, the text becomes aligned.

Artist statement: “Anamorphic typography is a special experience in which an arrangement of letters look perfectly set from a single point within a room, while looking wildly distorted from all other points. The message takes this experience and ties it to a larger point about seeing situations from another perspective.”

Read More......

Piet Zwart and El Lissitzky at “Sharing Space: Creative Intersections in Architecture and Design”

Piet Zwart (Dutch, 1885–1977)
Brochure for Bruynzeel lijstwerk, c. 1935
Tri-folded offset-printed flyer
Frederick W. Renshaw Acquisition Fund Art Institute of Chicago
Bruynzeel’s door and sash, mouldings and frames.
Photograph by versluis (taken through the picture frame glass)

At times it is easy to forget how radical the graphic designs of Piet Zwart and El Lissitzky were for their time.

For many years, beginning in 1930 Piet Zwart worked for the Bruynzeel company. In the beginning Zwart designed their annual calendars and other advertising materials. After a while he also served as an industrial and architectural designer for other products the company produced. In this piece Zwart utilizes scale and color of the hand profile that communicates and correlates handcrafted profiles of the wood mouldings. The black background bridges the negative space, typography, illustrations and photographic images. By highlighting the primary design elements the whole effect becomes very graphic.

A current exhibition at Art Institute of Chicago entitled, Sharing Space: Creative Intersections in Architecture and Design provides an interesting curatorial concept by juxtaposing several categories.

The exhibition statement explains, “In six sections—Color, Geometry, Structures, Hybrid, Surface, and Technology—objects are united by shared goals, strategies, and ideas, rather than by period or media.” The statement go on to say:

From the powerful effect of color to the rigor of geometry, this exhibition mines the permanent collection of the Department of Architecture and Design to reveal common creative concepts and formal strategies across the fields of architecture and design. These projects [such as the one shown above] in the Color section illustrate the diverse ways color can give design objects identity, improve functions, and promote new means of communication.

The piece shown below pertains to the Geometry section in the exhibition. Regarding this work, gallery information reads, “For graphic designers, geometry offers a tool for subverting conventional ideals of composition, as seen in the constructivist book cover design by El Lissitzky for a 1922 publication celebrating art in Russia.”


El Lissitzky (Russian, 1890–1941)
VESHCH = Gegestand = Objet, 1922
Cover design, Periodical
From the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
Ada Turnbull Hertle Fund, 2009.507
Image from WikiPaintings (I’ve adjusted the color to more resemble the piece in the show)

Read More......

John Ronan: Perth Amboy High School Project—facilities to facilitate a communal curriculum and program atomism

John Ronan Architects (founded in 1999)
John Ronan (American, born 1963)
Perth Amboy High School, Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Site Model, 2004
Plexiglas and other materials
Permanent collection of the AIC Department of Architecture and Design
Gift of Perth Amboy, New Jersey Board of Education, 2009.7
Photographs by Versluis 2013

This piece by John Ronan, an architectural office based in Chicago, is in the Creative Intersections in Architecture and Design exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition is on view until August 18, 2013 in Galleries 283–285. Architect John Ronan develops an intriguing merging of graphic images and color direction within a complex architectural space. Ronan’s design conveys communal unity with harmonized graphics and color program.


Close-up of the model indicating the graphical details. Middle image is courtesy of John Ronan Architects.

All information is taken from exhibition didactics:

In architecture, color is often used to demarcate space or redefine boundaries. John Ronan’s design for Perth Amboy High School utilizes color to identify five towers, each with a distinct program, and give the institution a visual presence in the community. 

John Ronan’s design for Perth Amboy High School blurs the boundaries between the institution and the community it serves. Formally, the design applied three organizational forms: the surface of the site is used for pathways, gathering space, and activities; a series of flexible buildings hold the academic facilities; and colored glass towers with distinct functions—one is, for example, a media center—are shared, with use for the school during the day and the surrounding community in the evening. As the tallest components of the design, the vibrant, translucent colored glass towers provide a signature feature for the structure and connect it visually with the surrounding area, just as its dual-use spaces connect it functionally. The overall complex is an elegant solution that encodes new formal relationships and rethinks the role institutions can play in their neighborhoods.

Read More......

Fabrication is currently in progress for “Enlaced”—a “burning bush” sculpture design by Versluis for Dordt College

Fabrication is currently in progress for Enlaced: a “burning bush” sculpture design
SolidWorks illustration of the red painted version (above) by William Morren
CORTEN Steel
18 feet high x width: 7 feet wide
Seven uprights or fingers allude to the number seven as the biblical symbol for completion and perfection.


Earlier this past May we received the good news from Dordt’s Advancement Office to proceed with the large 18 foot tall sculpture, which had been proposed for the front of Convenant Hall and had been awaiting full funding.  Ideas for the sculpture go back to 2010; Versluis’s proposal was selected and approved in early 2011. Fabrication has begun on the Dordt College East Campus Sculpture.

The fabrication is taking place at D+M Metal Products in Comstock Park, Michigan. D+M Metal has been around since 1946 and provides engineering, fabricating, welding, metal forming, blanking and machining services. The photograph above was taken by D+M co-owner Bob Buist and shows the bottom half of one of the uprights being constructed. As Mies van der Rohe said, “God is in the details” and careful engineering and fabrication have been key elements in the project. The photograph above shows one of the sections being assemble and welded. Notice the construction detail at the foreground indicating the mortise and tenon along with a fish mouth joint (saddle joint) to join the top and bottom sections.


This photograph shows two completed uprights “fingers” placed together.

Read More......

AIGA Chicago: ”Between Light and Shadow“—realizing that chairs are creatures too

Left: Photographer: Tom Vack. Right: Design Director, Designer: Rick Valicenti.

Between Light and Shadow: The Designer/Photographer Relationship.
The AIGA Chicago event at Open Secret Studio / Chicago.
Tuesday evening, June 11, 2013.
photograph by versluis 2013


Photograph from the Open Secret Studio balcony by Steven Brooks. Photograph taken from flickr: AIGA Chicago’s photostream.


A few page spreads from the Holly Hunt Image Book—image is courtesy of Graphis. Client: Holly Hunt. Design Director, Designer: Rick Valicenti. Designer: Robyn Paprocki. Illustrator: John Pobojewski. Illustrator: Cameron Brand. Photographer: Tom Vack

On Tuesday evening, June 11, 2013 during Chicago Design Week the AIGA Chicago held a fantastic show and tell event at the Open Secret Studio in Chicago. The event was publicized as “Between Light and Shadow: The Designer/Photographer Relationship,” which featured designer Rick Valicenti of Thirst/3st and photographer Tom Vack who spent time talking about their collaborative process to produce the beautiful Holly Hunt Image Book. Classic Color in Chicago printed the 64-page catalog on Sappi Fine Papers called Opus.

After brief introductions from event co-chairs Brendan Shanley and Robyn Paprocki the meeting was kicked-off by Holly Hunt of Holly Hunt Enterprises Inc., followed by Rick Valicenti who led the evening presentation. Rick is a cultural innovator, a leading contemporary designer and visionary, design director and visual artist. Tom Vack is an acclaimed photographer and visual artist and remarkable for his imagination.

It seems that nothing is impossible for Valicenti and Vack when collaborating on a design project. However, as Valicenti declared: “Without a visionary client [Holly Hunt] we don’t get to practice [visionary] design.” Rick suggested that a truly collaborative process begins with a fanciful client. For Valicenti and Vack a working collaborative process instigates open-mindedness and encouragement among the contributors.

Indeed, one of the most unique and striking things about Holly Hunt is that she sees her collection of furniture, lighting, and accessories as not merely inanimate objects, but actually as creatures. According to Rick it was in the planning stages of the Holly Hunt Studio catalog that Holly reviewed the sumptuous materials and surfaces of her new collection and exclaimed, “The aliens have landed and they are beautiful”. For Valicenti, Holly’s response captured the motif and emotion of the collection that “things are new again”.

Rick acknowledged that it was through the cooperation of all the participants including the people at Classic Color and Sappi who deserved much credit for continuing the collaborative spirit in order to complete the project. Tom Vack suggested that new designs, new processes and new materials require new approaches when developing tear-sheet images for the Holly Hunt Collection.

Rick explained the technical aspects of the production process while printing the page reverse negative image of the long sofa. At that moment he decided that the image needed an aura of gold flecks, which was then added to the UV coating. As a result the “fairy dust” effect would emphasize Holly’s initial quote, “The aliens have landed and they are beautiful”. Interestingly, the impact of this technique creates the quality and feel of traditional Japanese painting with mineral pigments on linen.

Additionally, Rick mentioned in a HOW Design/Sappi interview, “that many of the images are actually combinations of many images, each illuminating with a slightly different lighting direction. Once layered in post-production, this created geometric patterns of light and shadow.”(1) As Tom Vack mentioned, “photography and lighting is a formal process and with digital photography light can be anywhere and I can move it around the subject the way a Cubist way—by layering the images and erasing parts of the layers to combine and reveal the layers beneath—in this way, I developed the images.”

1. Mazzoleni, Melissa. “Photographer & Designer Discuss New Furniture Design Publication - See more at: www.howdesign.com/how-design-blog/photographer-designerdiscussfurniture-design-publication/.” HOW Design Blog 11 June 2013. Web. 15 June 2013.

Read More......

One of Doug Garofalo’s futuristic designs: the “Camouflage House” display model from 1991

Douglas Garofalo (American, 1958–2011)
David Leary (American, born 1956)
Camouflage House, Burr Ridge, Illinois, Model. 1991
The width is approximately 24 inches 
Mixed Media
Photograph by versluis 2013

Chicago architect Doug Garofalo’s display model for Camouflage House is one of the beautiful pieces in the Art Institute of Chicago’s enjoyable exhibition called, Sharing Space: Creative Intersections in Architecture and Design now on display until August 18, 2013 in Galleries 283–285. Pictured above is Garofalo’s piece as it is shown in the exhibition—wall-mounted in a Plexiglas case. This vantage point emphasizes the graphic flatness of the patterns that reveal and conceal the proposed structure in its built environment.

The exhibition didactics related to this work state, “From the powerful effect of color to the rigor of geometry, this exhibition presents architecture and design works that reveal common concepts and strategies across these interwoven fields. Douglas Garofalo’s Camouflage House model produces patterns of color that [disguise] the contours of the building and redefine its relationship to the site.” In addition, “Vivid hues that function to create ambiguity about the structure and boundaries of the object when viewed from different angles.”

Here’s an interesting review of the exhibition by Paul Preissner. Also, Garofalo’s model reminded me of Roy R. Behrens’s fascinating research about many aspects of camouflage—check out Roy’s Camoupedia blog.


This is a promotional image with an elevational perspective for the exhibition: Sharing Space. (1)

To elaborate further about this piece the exhibition curator writes:

Douglas Garofalo’s Camouflage House proposes a new kind of site-specificity for a sloped suburban lot. Rather than approaching the landscape as an idealized natural form, Garofalo translated the topography of the site into a complex network of lines that determine the contours and the surface of the structure. In this model for the project, the intersecting lines are filled in with vibrant color, creating an elaborate field and cladding for the building that both defines and obscures the shape of the structure. Here the idea of camouflage—a concept that drew the attention of many modern artists in the early 20th century—has a double sense, as the shape of long, ramp-like volume of the house was designed as an extension and distortion of the neighborhood’s typical suburban driveways.

1. Garofalo, Douglas, and David Leary. Camouflage House. 1991. Art Institute of Chicago. Gift of Douglas Garofalo, Chicago. Web. 18 June 2013.

Read More......