Exhibitions: reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio

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  reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio
  The architecture of the Brooklyn Museum has never remained static. Over the past 120 years, the institution has physically reshaped its building again and again as it has adapted to changing times in a rapidly unfolding city.
  
  The environment reOrder, created by Situ Studio, marks a moment in the Museum’s complex architectural history, as the Great Hall reopens to the public after a recent renovation. reOrder addresses the ideals of proportion and ornament so central to the original design of the Great Hall. In 1893, the prominent architectural firm McKim, Mead & White designed this space according to a classical architectural order, a specific set of stylistic traits and column profiles based on ancient examples. Now, employing a new set of ordering principles that challenge the colossal scale and the regularity of the gridded space, reOrder transforms the Hall to better serve the complexities of public programming.
  
  Situ Studio rearticulates the space through the lightweight and flexible language of fabric construction, building on strategies developed in the textile industry for folding and gathering. A system of flexible canopies, thermoformed benches and tables, and an assortment of internal plywood and steel armatures creates a unique forum for public interaction and assembly within this ever-evolving institution.
  
  Situ Studio was founded in 2005 in Brooklyn, New York. Concentrating on research, design, and fabrication, the firm works at the intersection of architecture and a variety of other disciplines to engage a wide range of spatial projects.

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  The Great Hall: A Brief History
  reOrder is a space-altering architectural installation created by Situ Studio, a Brooklyn-based creative practice specializing in design and fabrication. This site-specific project introduces the renovated Great Hall, an extraordinary space with a long and complicated history.
  
  When it first opened to the public, in December 1925, this area had been under construction for over a decade. The Hall, and the floors above it, nearly doubled the Museum’s exhibition space, and the large and desirable galleries it provided were soon filled with the Museum’s collections of non-Western art: Asian art was on an open mezzanine, and African, Oceanic, and Native American art was on the main level.
  
  The pioneering curator Stewart Culin intended the large, square Hall to be symbolic of the world, with the art of different peoples distinguished by different paint colors. Native American collections were housed in cases of reds and pinks, and African art and art from the Pacific Islands were in shades of green. The resulting gallery was called “Rainbow House.”
  
  At that time, in 1925, the Museum’s entrance was two floors above us, reached by a grand staircase on the building’s façade; Rainbow House was thus on a lower level. In 1934, the grand staircase was removed, and this space became the first gallery Museum visitors encountered. Over the years, the installation evolved and changed, and the central area was known as the Hall of the Americas beginning in 1965.
  
  This 10,000-square-foot space—now referred to as the Great Hall—has recently been upgraded for climate control. A new installation following reOrder, planned for early 2012, will transform the renovated Hall into a dynamic introduction to the full breadth of the Museum’s collections. For the first time, this space will function as the visitor’s initial gallery experience of the Museum as a whole.
  
  reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio is organized by Lance Singletary, Associate Exhibition Designer,and Sharon Matt Atkins, Managing Curator of Exhibitions, Brooklyn Museum.