SCI-Arc Gallery Exhibition Opening
Jakob + MacFarlane
Breathing Wall
Wednesday, December 13 from 6-8pm
Conceived as a piece of a much larger architectural environment, the “Breathing Wall” is imagined as a surface which opens and closes, regulating the passage of such necessities as air circulation, views, physical passage, and sunlight between an interior and an exterior environment.
The wall is imagined as an architecture of mediation, a way in which a quality of action/reaction can be manifested in a non static phenomenon, moving and changing according to a set of varying external information parameters.
The surface of the Breathing Wall was developed by projecting a set of voronoi boundaries onto a surface engineered to exhibit simultaneous conditions of convexity and concavity. At the points of maximum deformation, the voronoi were segmented to produce a pair of apertures that allow a phenomenon of periodic inhalation and exhalation. The remaining voronoi boundaries were then further tessellated.
To provide guidance for the fabrication of developable, perforated and foldable voronoi panels, the wall is then fabricated in place, using techniques and tooling borrowed from both the automotive and the aerospace industries.
-Excerpt from text by Dominique Jakob and Brendan MacFarlane
The work of Jakob+MacFarlane explores digital technology both conceptually and as a means of fabrication, using new materials to create a more flexible, responsive and immediate environment. Main projects to date include the T House at La Garenne-Colombes, Paris, France (1998), Restaurant Georges at the Pompidou Center, Paris (2000) and the reconstruction of the Theatre of Pont-Audemer, France (1999–2000). The firm also participated in an international competition for the Musée Branly in Paris. Current projects include the Docks of Paris project, which includes within it a fashion and design center; and three buildings for the 100 Apartments project in Paris, both due for completion in 2006. The firm regularly participates in invited competitions, most recently for the New Media Center (la Gaité Lyrique) in Paris and the new city center and casino in Knokke-Heist in Belgium. They have just won the competition for the New FRAC architecture exhibition center in Orléans.
Their projects have been exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum (London, 2003), SFMOMA (San Francisco, 2004), the Museum of Architecture (Moscow, 2000), Artists Space (New York, 2003), the Carnegie Melon (USA, 2001), the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, 2004), the Pompidou Center, the Pavillon de l'Arsenal (Paris), the Bartlett School Gallery (London, 1997), and at the Orléans/ArchiLab International Architectural Conference (1999, 2001, 2003). Jakob + MacFarlane were among the architects selected by France for the 2002 Venice Architectural Biennale, and were also featured in the 2004 international selection.
All SCI-Arc events are free and open to the public. The school is located at 960 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013. The parking lot entrance is at 350 Merrick Street, between 4th Street and Traction Avenue. // Please visit www.sciarc.edu for additional programming and information, or call 213.613.2200 x328. To join SCI-Arc’s email list, contact public_programs@sciarc.edu
Southern California Institute of Architecture
960 E. 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
t. 213.613.2200
f. 213.613.1272
