Sensing Spaces - Architecture Reimagined

Sensing Spaces - Architecture Reimagined
Royal Academy of Arts

«How do spaces shape our lives?
How do they make us feel?

Experiencing architecture involves moving within and around it, absorbing its qualities through our bodies and senses. We react, consciously or not, to the characteristics of different materials, vistas, volumes, sounds, spatial relationships and proportions. As well as engaging physically with space, our experience of it is also informed by our memories and habits.

Human responses to architecture range from awe to feelings of comfort, safety, pleasure, excitement or unease. We frequently shape the spaces around us - from making dens as children to placing furniture in a living room. Ultimately, architecture connects us to time, place, and people.

This exhibition invites you to explore built space directly. The installations all highlight different aspects of architecture - from the manipulation of light, mass and structure to the transformations brought about by use, movement and interaction.» 

[exhibition text]

Pezo von Ellrichshausen

Pezo von Ellrichshausen

Pezo von Ellrichshausen

Pezo von Ellrichshausen

Pezo von Ellrichshausen

Diébédo Francis Kéré

To move forward, people need to be inspired: they need buildings that enhance their creativity into their own hands. - Diébédo Francis Kéré

Diébédo Francis Kéré

"I believe it is important to engage people in the process of building so they have an investment in what is developed. Through thinking and working together people find that the built object becomes part of a bonding experience."

Diébédo Francis Kéré

Eduardo Souto de Moura

"For me, architecture requires continuity; we have to continue what others have done before us but using different materials and methods of construction."

Kengo Kuma

"I always start with something small, breaking down materials into particles or fragments that can then be recombined into units of the right scale to provide comfort and intimacy."

Kengo Kuma

Li Xiaodong

"According to the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Zi, what is important is what is contained, not the container."

Li Xiaodong

Li Xiaodong

Li Xiaodong

Li Xiaodong

Li Xiaodong

Grafton Architects

When are you aware of spaces you inhabit? Thresholds are places where we naturally become more aware. For me this occurs each time I leave the quite complex of Trinity College in Dublin. - Yvonne Farrell, Grafton Architects

Grafton Architects

"There is a sense of pleasure in moving from darkness to light or vice versa because as human beings we're cyclical. How light reflects and how light is contained is the stuff of architecture."

Álvaro Siza Vieira

Golden Lion: Álvaro Siza Vieira

PR: la Biennale di Venezia

Álvaro Siza Vieira

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement
of 13th International Architecture Exhibition

Venice, June 27th 2012 – Álvaro Siza Vieira has been chosen to be the recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition – Common Ground (Venice, Giardini and Arsenale, August 29th – November 25th, 2012).

The decision is made by the Board of la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, under Director David Chipperfield’s proposal, with the following motivation:

“I am equal in size to whatever I see, not hemmed in by the size I am”
(Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet)

“It is difficult to think of a contemporary architect who has maintained such a consistent presence within the profession as Álvaro Siza. That this presence is maintained by an architect that lives and works at the extreme Atlantic margin of Europe only serves to emphasise his authority and his status.”

“Since the early appreciation of the Boa Nova restaurant and the swimming pools at Leca de Palmeira and a reputation confirmed by the early houses, Siza has maintained a unique position in the architectural galaxy. This position is full of paradox. Siza has upheld a consistent production of works at the highest level, yet without the slightest hint of the overt professionalism and promotion that has become part of the contemporary architect’s machinery. Apparently running in the opposite direction to the rest of the profession he always seems to be out in front, seemingly untainted and undaunted by the practical and intellectual challenges he sets himself.”

“Secured by his isolated location, he exudes worldly wisdom. Experimenting with forms of extreme geometry he manages to produce buildings of great rigor. Developing an architectural language that is uniquely his, he seems to speak to all of us. While his work exudes the security of judgment, it is clearly intensified through cautious reflection. While we are dazzled by the lightness of his buildings, we feel the seriousness of their substance.
Those of us fortunate enough to have heard him speak about architecture, using words as sparingly and as precise as the fine lines of his drawings, know that these works are not the product of a conventional talent but of a mind sophisticatedly exercised by the confidence of knowledge and the wisdom of doubt.”

The Golden Lion will be officially awarded to Álvaro Siza Vieira on Wednesday August 29th, 2012 - 11am at the Giardini of la Biennale, during the opening and award ceremony of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition.