This Friday I went on a trip to Liverpool, to see the 'Forest of Fabrication' exhibition at RIBA North, and also to explore some more of the city.
Poster for the Forest of Fabrication exhibition
Forest of Fabrication
The Forest of Fabrication exhibition consists of 24 concept models from a period of 24 years, by Stirling Prize winning practice dRMM Architects. The focus is on "celebrating the possibilities and significance of modern timber architecture".
Overview of the exhibition, showing each model resting on its log stand
Visiting this exhibition was a great experience for me for a number of reasons. Firstly, although I am working with bamboo rather than conventional timber, it was great to see such a comprehensive body of work, covering so many different scales and typologies of buildings, all using a natural, sustainable material, and one which may not conventionally be used for some of the building types.
Model for Kingsdale School, London, 2004
Another fantastic thing about this exhibition was demonstrating the power of the physical model to convey an architectural concept and design. As physical modelling is something that I have begun exploring quite a bit for the fabric formwork process, this is inspiration to keep using this approach, as it can be such an evocative way of communicating space. It is particularly good at demonstrating the qualities that materiality brings to the project, which is going to be important for my project. Hopefully some of my photos here also show that combining photography with physical models can then get further value out of a model.
Model for Factory Prototype, 2014
Models for Market Lands, Winnipeg, Canada, 2018 (left) and Parabolica, 2006 (right)
Open Eye Gallery
As well as seeing the Forest of Fabrication exhibition, I wanted to make the most out of my trip to see some of the other galleries in Liverpool. One that I hadn't previously known about, but came across on the way to RIBA North was the Open Eye Gallery. This is an independent not-for-profit photography gallery.
The exhibition on currently is 'Visual Rights: how do we visualise power?' , which is exhibiting work by artists from Palestine, Israel and the UK. I found this really powerful, using photography to highlight the uneven distributions of power in places such as Palestine, and show how space and place are contested. I would recommend anyone to visit this, or to look out for the work of these artists elsewhere: Hagit Keysar, Miki Kratsman & Shabtai Pincheksky, Corinne Silva, Yazan Khalili, Tarek Al-Ghoussein.
Main room of the 'Visual Rights: how do we visualise power?' exhibition, on currently at the Open Eye Gallery
Tate Liverpool
After this, I went to the Tate Liverpool, which had been the other thing I had planned to definitely do whilst in Liverpool. This has a great, varied collection of visual, audio-visual and installation works. I particularly enjoyed the exhibition of hanging fabric prints in the ground floor exhibition space, shown here, and also seeing how the space has been adapted from its former use as a warehouse into its gallery typology.
Ground floor exhibition currently on at Tate Liverpool
Other sights and places
Aside from these three gallery visits, which occupied the majority of my time, I also took the time to have a wander through some of the other parts of the city. Chinatown and the two cathedrals were particular highlights.
Chinatown
Reflection
This was a great day out in many regards. The Forest of Fabrication exhibition, my initial reason for going, was a beautiful and inspirational experience, and has given me a high bar to try and reach in my use of physical modelling! The other galleries were great as well, and I look forward to looking more into the work of the artists from the Visual Rights exhibition in particular. Finally, I just really enjoyed getting to know Liverpool as a city a lot better, as it is a place that I don't know very well. This has definitely made me want to go and spend more time there in the summer, and also has made me want to get on a train to visit other places that I haven't yet properly experienced.
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