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Crossing Over: Art & Science at Caltech 1920-2020
Crossing Over: Art & Science at Caltech 1920-2020
Pasadena, CA, United States
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Other Projects by Tim Durfee Studio
Crossing Over: Art & Science at Caltech 1920-2020
Pasadena, CA, United States
Firm
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2025
SIZE
25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft
BUDGET
$100K - 500K
Crossing Over: Art & Science at Caltech 1920-2020, a temporary exhibition installed across forty acres of the California Institute of Technology campus, explores the interplay of scientific and artistic experimentation by placing treasures from the Caltech archives in dialogue with works by significant contemporary artists.
The exhibition was part of the Getty’s PST ART initiative, and was curated by Claudia Bohn-Spector, with University Archivist Peter Sachs Collopy and Exhibition Coordinator Bailey Westerhoff. Exhibition design by Tim Durfee, with graphic design by Jennifer Rider.
Architecturally, the Crossing Over is a network of installations, each nested within active spaces across the Caltech campus. Freestanding follies guide visitors to each site, providing a passive tour of Bertram Goodhue’s landmark campus along the way.
The decision to integrate the exhibition within the campus - rather than consolidate it in a gallery - introduced particular constraints, as the historical sites could not be altered in any way, nor could any research or teaching be disrupted.
The response was to embrace a form language of tactical improvisation, where planes bend, fold, and hover – often on tip-toe legs - to address the visual field while avoiding existing pathways and surfaces. This responsive approach was also employed to direct flow around each structure, allowing coves and undulations to maximize the surface area for display while minimizing any unused material.
The material and fabrication methods were deliberately simple and direct, inspired by the pragmatic but idiosyncratic structures often found in artists’ studios or scientific laboratories. Billboard-like geometric profiles provide wayfinding and signal key curatorial moments throughout the show, such as framing a live projection of the sun that starts the exhibition, supporting photographic murals, or creating portals for viewing objects, people, and environments.
By nesting a temporary information-oriented “campus” within the existing one, Crossing Over hints at a possible future for building in the AI and information age, where logics of interface merge with those of architecture to form new types of public and cultural environments.
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The exhibition design showcases the principles of Design for Disassembly – an ethos that views initial use as provisional and anticipates the eventual reuse or non-compromised recycling of every individual material.
Many of the guiding tenets of Design for Disassembly - fasteners over adhesives, minimal materials, avoiding chemical finishes – were foregrounded in the design, which embraced exposed hardware and pragmatic construction with unfinished materials. Even Velcro was used to connect aluminum panels to wooden structures, permitting eventual reuse. Despite the variety of structures in Crossing Over, many were comprised of repeated elements designed not only for their flexibility to the needs of the exhibition, but to different future uses and contexts. These detachable elements included steel legs and struts, freestanding stud frames, and hardwired reusable light fixtures. This approach enabled an especially efficient construction process, with the entire exhibition fabricated and assembled offsite, transported, then reassembled on location.
While the extreme budget limited material sourcing to some less-than-optimally sustainable materials, the Design for Disassembly approach provided an offset and alternative pathway to a smaller ecological footprint. After the close of the exhibition, nearly all the design’s constituent elements were either immediately redeployed offsite or stored by the university for future use.
The exhibition was part of the Getty’s PST ART initiative, and was curated by Claudia Bohn-Spector, with University Archivist Peter Sachs Collopy and Exhibition Coordinator Bailey Westerhoff. Exhibition design by Tim Durfee, with graphic design by Jennifer Rider.
Architecturally, the Crossing Over is a network of installations, each nested within active spaces across the Caltech campus. Freestanding follies guide visitors to each site, providing a passive tour of Bertram Goodhue’s landmark campus along the way.
The decision to integrate the exhibition within the campus - rather than consolidate it in a gallery - introduced particular constraints, as the historical sites could not be altered in any way, nor could any research or teaching be disrupted.
The response was to embrace a form language of tactical improvisation, where planes bend, fold, and hover – often on tip-toe legs - to address the visual field while avoiding existing pathways and surfaces. This responsive approach was also employed to direct flow around each structure, allowing coves and undulations to maximize the surface area for display while minimizing any unused material.
The material and fabrication methods were deliberately simple and direct, inspired by the pragmatic but idiosyncratic structures often found in artists’ studios or scientific laboratories. Billboard-like geometric profiles provide wayfinding and signal key curatorial moments throughout the show, such as framing a live projection of the sun that starts the exhibition, supporting photographic murals, or creating portals for viewing objects, people, and environments.
By nesting a temporary information-oriented “campus” within the existing one, Crossing Over hints at a possible future for building in the AI and information age, where logics of interface merge with those of architecture to form new types of public and cultural environments.
//
The exhibition design showcases the principles of Design for Disassembly – an ethos that views initial use as provisional and anticipates the eventual reuse or non-compromised recycling of every individual material.
Many of the guiding tenets of Design for Disassembly - fasteners over adhesives, minimal materials, avoiding chemical finishes – were foregrounded in the design, which embraced exposed hardware and pragmatic construction with unfinished materials. Even Velcro was used to connect aluminum panels to wooden structures, permitting eventual reuse. Despite the variety of structures in Crossing Over, many were comprised of repeated elements designed not only for their flexibility to the needs of the exhibition, but to different future uses and contexts. These detachable elements included steel legs and struts, freestanding stud frames, and hardwired reusable light fixtures. This approach enabled an especially efficient construction process, with the entire exhibition fabricated and assembled offsite, transported, then reassembled on location.
While the extreme budget limited material sourcing to some less-than-optimally sustainable materials, the Design for Disassembly approach provided an offset and alternative pathway to a smaller ecological footprint. After the close of the exhibition, nearly all the design’s constituent elements were either immediately redeployed offsite or stored by the university for future use.
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