by: Murrye Bernard Assoc. AIA LEED AP
Event: New Practices New York Exhibition Opening
Location: Center for Architecture, 07.15.10
Organizer: AIANY New Practices Committee
Sponsors: Lead Sponsor:Dornbracht, MG & Company; Valiant Technology; Sponsor: Espasso, Häfele and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Media Sponsor: The Architect’s Newspaper; Friend: Benjamin Moore
Members of the 2010 New Practices.
Alex Welsh
Winners of the AIANY New Practices Committee’s portfolio-based competition for emerging firms in NYC include: EASTON+COMBS (highest honor); Archipelagos; Leong Leong; Manifold; SOFTlab; SO-IL; and Tacklebox. Examples of their work are now side-by-side in an exhibition at the Center for Architecture. Designed by Leven Betts Studio, the exhibition is organized by media type — drawings, models, and video — so viewers can draw comparisons. An entire gallery is devoted to models, more than any previous NPNY exhibition, ranging from foam-core study models to carefully crafted final versions.
Perhaps the most telling aspect of the exhibition is the video component. Each winning firm was asked to create a short film about their practice. These films, which loop on small flat-screens, feature interviews with firm principals, shots of firm members at work, and, in some cases, edgy music. The personalities of the firms are intimately revealed, and adjacent larger flat-screens feature a scrolling portfolio of their work.
Also on view are the physical portfolios, which viewers are invited to flip through. Since the competition was based on these portfolio designs, they stand as examples of successful layouts. The exhibition will be on view through 10.23.10 at the Center for Architecture, and then it will travel to São Paolo in 2011. To learn more about the seven winning firms, attend the Winner’s Symposium on 07.29.10, when they will present their work and discuss the organization of their practices. Tours of the studios will also be part of openhousenewyork, 10.09-10.10.10.
Murrye Bernard, LEED AP, is a freelance architectural writer and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.