Small wonders: Supermodels, an unmissable exhibition celebrates artistry of architectural model
10/12/2022.
Supermodels [LON] UK
metalocus, ANDRÉS BLANCO
metalocus, ANDRÉS BLANCO
The exhibition "Supermodels" celebrates the creative body of work by Piercy&Company, (studio based in London), the art of model making, and the distillation of 20 years of the firm’s design thinking around the importance of the haptic, sensory and experiential in architecture.
Employing mechanical automata, projection, sound, light and scent, the exhibition experiments on how far the architectural model can celebrate the architecture and the built environment communicating ideas around buildings through movement, sound, scent and film.
Employing mechanical automata, projection, sound, light and scent, the exhibition experiments on how far the architectural model can celebrate the architecture and the built environment communicating ideas around buildings through movement, sound, scent and film.
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg.
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg.
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg.
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg.
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg.
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg.
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg.
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg.
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg.
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg.
The models were made by Piercy&Company’s architecture team to explore and test experiential aspects of architecture, including the spatial, the tectonic and the tactile. Collectively they represent Piercy&Company’s work across typologies from large commercial developments to churches, memorials and one-off family homes.
The first of the Supermodels made by the studio was Steel House. Steel House is based on an experimental modular steel house that was fabricated off-site and craned into a constrained urban site in Kew, London.
The model separates out into parts to describe the off-site fabrication process, unpeeling itself before your eyes like a clockwork onion, inviting you inside and overlaying the technical story with all the stuff of ‘home’. A family home, with a curl of real smoke lifting from a steel chimney with the rhythms, rituals, warmth and eccentricities of family life: a clockwork bird flaps its wings and the small sounds of children playing filter from hidden speakers.
The first of the Supermodels made by the studio was Steel House. Steel House is based on an experimental modular steel house that was fabricated off-site and craned into a constrained urban site in Kew, London.
The model separates out into parts to describe the off-site fabrication process, unpeeling itself before your eyes like a clockwork onion, inviting you inside and overlaying the technical story with all the stuff of ‘home’. A family home, with a curl of real smoke lifting from a steel chimney with the rhythms, rituals, warmth and eccentricities of family life: a clockwork bird flaps its wings and the small sounds of children playing filter from hidden speakers.
The interweaving of the technical with the human in the Steel House model set the agenda for the rest of the Supermodel series.
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg.
Supermodels by Piercy&Company. Photograph by Andy Stagg.
Many of the models use, as their “moving” element, light, miniature shadows of moving people are projected onto the floors of the model of a contemporary office building, while the image of a whale skeleton is lifted high into the atrium; then a ballerina dances over the floors like a ghost.
The exhibition culminates with Flythrough, a critique of the predominance of the image over the haptic experience of buildings. Here, visitors are invited to view the work via a live camera feed projected onto the adjacent wall. The camera lens travels through the physical model, where surfaces outside of the camera’s field of view have been removed, leaving only an abstract assemblage.
Materials used in the exhibition range from plaster, black valchromat, birch ply, aluminium, photo-etched copper, white laser cut Perspex and walnut veneers, to elements more unusual to model makings, such as speakers, atomisers, LED strips, motors, and film.
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Collaborators
Venue / Adress
In the Jahn Court building, Regent Quarter, 34 York Way (entrance of York Way), London, N1 9AB (7-minute walk from King’s Cross Station). Entry is free.
Dates
Friday 25 November at Regent Quarter, King’s Cross London N1, and runs until Sunday 11 December 2022.
Opening Hours
12pm-7pm Monday to Friday
12pm-5pm Saturday and Sunday
Opening Hours
12pm-7pm Monday to Friday
12pm-5pm Saturday and Sunday
Photography
Stuart Piercy Piercy and Company
Piercy&Company is a London-based studio founded in 2002 by architect Stuart Piercy. The interdisciplinary practice comprises 95 architects, designers and researchers with a shared passion for materials, form, technology and craft.
The studio works on projects at every scale, from masterplans and large-scale buildings to interiors and objects. No matter the scale or typology, all are fuelled by the ambition to improve the human experience of how projects are made and how they feel.
Creating new forms with traditional techniques while investigating familiar forms with experimental materials, collaborations with specialist craftspeople and partnerships with academics, universities, engineers and ambitious clients provide our studio with an endless source of energy, inspiration and optimism for the future.
The studio works on projects at every scale, from masterplans and large-scale buildings to interiors and objects. No matter the scale or typology, all are fuelled by the ambition to improve the human experience of how projects are made and how they feel.
Creating new forms with traditional techniques while investigating familiar forms with experimental materials, collaborations with specialist craftspeople and partnerships with academics, universities, engineers and ambitious clients provide our studio with an endless source of energy, inspiration and optimism for the future.
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