RESTLESS

ARCHITECTURE

Architecture is slow, heavy, expensive, and rooted to the ground, all of which promise long life expectancy. By contrast, the speed of change that architecture is expected to accommodate has never been greater, including political upheavals, economic fluctuations, climate disasters, shifting social norms, and breakneck technological innovations. The first principle of the Vitruvian triad, firmitas, or stability, may have been an asset in Roman times, but today it may be a liability. In light of the fast pace of change all around us, why should architecture sit still?

Motivated by both pragmatic and utopian ideals, postwar architecture introduced a resistance to architecture’s stubborn rigidity. Restless Architecture showcases works from the 1930s to the present organized into four categories: mobile, adaptive, operable, and eco-dynamic. The exhibition features little known projects for which mobility plays a key role in challenging institutional conventions, as well as paradigm-shifting projects by established figures such as Cedric Price, Kisho Kurakawa, Hans Hollein, Maurizio Sacripanti, and OMA.

Mobile buildings can physically relocate, whether forced to move to avoid demolition or transported elsewhere by choice. No longer confined to a fixed place, mobile architecture embodies a fluidity that allows it to move together with its users, offering temporary space or shelter wherever needed, as it is the case with many of the projects on display including the Mobile Office (Mobile Büro, 1969), the inflatable office designed by Hans Hollein to provide a workspace that can be carried around; the concept of Instant City (1970) by the Archigram group; and the Ark Nova Concert Hall (2013), designed by Anish Kapoor in collaboration with Arata Isozaki, amongst others.

Adaptive buildings can reconfigure and absorb technological or programmatic changes wrought by economic or social developments. Cedric Price’s unrealized Fun Palace (1964) is represented by a newly commissioned physical model as well as a silhouette animation created by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. This section also features a newly commissioned model of the Nakagin Capsule Tower (1970) by Kisho Kurokawa, as well as an original capsule on display in Alighiero Boetti Square. Other projects on display include The Shed (2019) by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, as well as Prada Transformer (2009) by OMA, and the project for the Italian Pavilion at the International Exhibition – EXPO 70 by Maurizio Sacripanti.

Operable buildings function like machines, tuned to the requirements of their inhabitants to serve individual or collective purposes. Under the guidance of their occupants, responsive buildings adjust their surfaces to meet human needs. In this section, projects on display include the Montgomery County Rotary Jail (1882) by William Brown;and the Maison à Bordeaux (1998) by OMA.This section includes newly commissioned video portraits by Arian Lehner/Mies.TV in collaboration with DS+R, presenting The Central Social Institute (1937) in Prague designed by Ferdinand Ludwig, František Libra, and Jiří Kan and the Baťa's Skyscraper (1938) designed by Vladimír Karfík.

While most buildings form an airtight seal against the elements, ecodynamic architecture integrates technologies to create supple interfaces between a building and its environment. This section demonstrates an architecture that embraces rather than resists the forces of nature, interacting with the climate to absorb sunlight, provide shade, or reinforce against the wind, engaging in a perpetual dialogue with the surrounding environment. Ecodynamic structures go beyond comfort standards, embodying a new model of sustainability, as seen in Villa Girasole (1935) by Angelo Invernizzi; the Institut du MondeArabe (1987) by Jean Nouvel, Gilbert Lèzenes, Pierre Soria, and Architecture Studio; and in the Project for the Shading of the Square in Medina (2010) by SL Rasch GmbH Special & Lightweight Structures.

The invitation to curate and design an exhibition about architecture and motion at MAXII provided DS+R an opportunity to engage the dynamic of Zaha Hadid’s building, which presents its own form of frozen movement. In a dialogue with the linear ceiling beams of the gallery, DS+R integrated tracks with mobile curtains that weave through the space to produce small video theaters that come and go, interrupting the exhibition to provide an additional layer of reflection on the theme of movement.

Architectural representation is not equipped to capture motion. Therefore, DS+R’s exhibition design supplemented conventional architectural models, drawings and photographs with newly commissioned kinetic models, full scale mock-ups, experimental prototypes, and video installations.