reOrder Takes Shape
As many may know Situ Studio, a Brooklyn based architectural and fabrication firm, has been preparing for their installation reORDER, which will be presented here in conjunction with the completed renovation of the Museum’s Great Hall, March 5th 2011. Situ Studio has been working for months testing fabrication methods, solving engineering challenges and selecting materials.
Situ Studio (2005–present), Brooklyn. Rendering of reOrder, an installation to open in the Great Hall of the Brooklyn Museum in 2011
It has been my pleasure to be able to watch this process develop from its very early stages to its current project milestone: the first full scale mock up of one of Situ Studios column distorting creations.
Situ Studio. Full scale column mock up with fabric form at top and table or seating area options at the base.
I was invited to visit a construction site in mid-town Manhattan where a donated space housed the gigantic model that the Situ Studio team had been on working for weeks. I might add that my feet went numb almost immediately in the raw unheated space where this team has spent many consecutive hours constructing the mock up. Upon encountering the model, what struck me immediately was the shift in scale from previous prototypes. Because of this change, the form went from being merely viewed to being experienced. In addition to the main fabric form, each column ends at its base in either a bench or standing table that are being fabricated from a solid surface material shaped by a cutting edge heat forming technique. These areas of respite will provide a dramatic vantage point to experience the reORDER installation.
What was an exciting project on paper is beginning to take shape; I can only imagine that when these forms transform the 16 giant columns of the Great Hall it will be truly spectacular.
