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Transient gallery
Transient gallery
Venice, Italy
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Transient gallery
Venice, Italy
VENICE BIENNALE 2012- THE TRANSIENT GALLERY
CRITICAL
DIALOGUES directed by Jonathan Charley is this year’s Scottish contribution to
the Venice Architecture Biennale and showcases projects from four emerging
practices, Do Architecture, GRAS,
Stone Opera and Pidgin Perfect that explore the social role of the architect
and the creative boundaries of architecture organised as a week long series of
events within the public realm.
GRAS’ individual
contribution, The Transient Gallery explores the significance of everyday
functional objects which create or enhance a sense of collective identity
across the communities that use them. In
response to the theme of this year’s Venice Biennale, Common Ground, the
Gallery specifically focuses attention on the historic well heads located
throughout the city, which were for centuries the only source of fresh drinking
water in Venice.
Often richly embellished with cultural and political motifs, these were
an important meeting point where the Venetian people would exchange stories,
gossip and news on a daily basis. With the decommissioning of the well
heads and fresh water becoming available in private homes this network of
social interaction was lost. The project presents these threatened
artefacts in a gallery like environment at the heart of the communities they
once served. By highlighting them and
celebrating their history the intention is to encourage debate among residents
and design professionals on the relevance of similar shared functional objects
in modern communities.
The Transient
Gallery consists of a series of curved, lightweight interlocking panels, which
stack during transport, but when linked together, form a spiral enclosure
around the freestanding well heads, defining a serene internal space and removing
visual and acoustic distractions. The
Gallery was constructed in Scotland
and transported to Venice
by van where it was assembled at a range of locations throughout the city over
the course of a week. At each location,
Scottish spring water was served in numbered glass bottles as a reminder of the
wells original purpose and history and to form a tangible link between the
historic wells of Scotland
and Venice. This gesture also serves to emphasise what a
precious commodity clean water has been historically, and will be in the
future.
Construction
The gallery,
which is constructed in Ultra High Density, 100% recyclable polystyrene
combines modern CAM techniques with
traditional crafts. Each panel is cut by
machine before being hand tooled, finished and assembled in the practice’s
workshop. In order to explore the
potential treatments of the material all of the tooling was undertaken by the
architects working in collaboration with traditional craftsmen, including a
cabinetmaker and stonemason. The rough
outer face is hand tooled using traditional techniques normally associated with
stone working, before being heat sealed to form a hard-wearing outer crust,
while the inner face is surface filled and painted to provide a smooth, bright
interior. The entire structure consists
of 12 panels, each weighing approximately 8kgs and can be easily assembled by
two people in around twenty minutes and cost under £3000 to build.
After the
Venice Biennale 2012 the structure will return to Scotland where it will appear for
short periods of time in unexpected locations, drawing attention to undervalued
objects in our urban environment. In
Spring 2013 the outcome of the work and the structure itself will form part of
an exhibition covering the work by all of the practices involved in Scotland+Venice
2012.
Architects GRAS
Polystyrene
Manufacturer Polyscot
Ltd.
Joiners Andrew Longworth
Fergus
Jackson
Stonemason Billy Miller
All photographs
copyright Murdo McDermid. www.murdomcdermid.co.uk.
CRITICAL
DIALOGUES TEAM
Project
director Jonathan
Charlie
Project
Producer Judith
Winter
Project
Coordinator Lottie
Gerrard
Practices Do Architecture
GRAS
Stone
Opera
Pidgin
Perfect
For more
information on the Critical Dialogues programme visit www.scotlandandvenice.com/architecture.
CRITICAL
DIALOGUES directed by Jonathan Charley is this year’s Scottish contribution to
the Venice Architecture Biennale and showcases projects from four emerging
practices, Do Architecture, GRAS,
Stone Opera and Pidgin Perfect that explore the social role of the architect
and the creative boundaries of architecture organised as a week long series of
events within the public realm.
GRAS’ individual
contribution, The Transient Gallery explores the significance of everyday
functional objects which create or enhance a sense of collective identity
across the communities that use them. In
response to the theme of this year’s Venice Biennale, Common Ground, the
Gallery specifically focuses attention on the historic well heads located
throughout the city, which were for centuries the only source of fresh drinking
water in Venice.
Often richly embellished with cultural and political motifs, these were
an important meeting point where the Venetian people would exchange stories,
gossip and news on a daily basis. With the decommissioning of the well
heads and fresh water becoming available in private homes this network of
social interaction was lost. The project presents these threatened
artefacts in a gallery like environment at the heart of the communities they
once served. By highlighting them and
celebrating their history the intention is to encourage debate among residents
and design professionals on the relevance of similar shared functional objects
in modern communities.
The Transient
Gallery consists of a series of curved, lightweight interlocking panels, which
stack during transport, but when linked together, form a spiral enclosure
around the freestanding well heads, defining a serene internal space and removing
visual and acoustic distractions. The
Gallery was constructed in Scotland
and transported to Venice
by van where it was assembled at a range of locations throughout the city over
the course of a week. At each location,
Scottish spring water was served in numbered glass bottles as a reminder of the
wells original purpose and history and to form a tangible link between the
historic wells of Scotland
and Venice. This gesture also serves to emphasise what a
precious commodity clean water has been historically, and will be in the
future.
Construction
The gallery,
which is constructed in Ultra High Density, 100% recyclable polystyrene
combines modern CAM techniques with
traditional crafts. Each panel is cut by
machine before being hand tooled, finished and assembled in the practice’s
workshop. In order to explore the
potential treatments of the material all of the tooling was undertaken by the
architects working in collaboration with traditional craftsmen, including a
cabinetmaker and stonemason. The rough
outer face is hand tooled using traditional techniques normally associated with
stone working, before being heat sealed to form a hard-wearing outer crust,
while the inner face is surface filled and painted to provide a smooth, bright
interior. The entire structure consists
of 12 panels, each weighing approximately 8kgs and can be easily assembled by
two people in around twenty minutes and cost under £3000 to build.
After the
Venice Biennale 2012 the structure will return to Scotland where it will appear for
short periods of time in unexpected locations, drawing attention to undervalued
objects in our urban environment. In
Spring 2013 the outcome of the work and the structure itself will form part of
an exhibition covering the work by all of the practices involved in Scotland+Venice
2012.
Architects GRAS
Polystyrene
Manufacturer Polyscot
Ltd.
Joiners Andrew Longworth
Fergus
Jackson
Stonemason Billy Miller
All photographs
copyright Murdo McDermid. www.murdomcdermid.co.uk.
CRITICAL
DIALOGUES TEAM
Project
director Jonathan
Charlie
Project
Producer Judith
Winter
Project
Coordinator Lottie
Gerrard
Practices Do Architecture
GRAS
Stone
Opera
Pidgin
Perfect
For more
information on the Critical Dialogues programme visit www.scotlandandvenice.com/architecture.
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