What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1477891
SEPTEMBER 4-10, 2022 WHAT'S UP! 9 and to experience and interact with nature is the magical part and what architecture does when it's good. Each prototype in the exhibition can be expanded upon to suit the potential or future occupants for housing based off of it and dependent on their individual needs, such as multigenerational living or aging in place, for example. "Depending on who would live in this space, it can be manipulated to fit the needs of those people," Turk says. "When thinking about making housing, it's important [that it be] not only affordable and successful in its attainability and how it functions for real people." The MUTUO design firm, based in Los Angeles, went against the initial assignment a bit, Turk says, because they wanted to make a larger statement about the rigidity within the American housing system. Among MUTUO's most trusted contractors was a man named Abraham who was incredibly skilled and responsible, but because he's not an American citizen and doesn't have a bank account in the U.S., he couldn't get any financing or lending to buy land and build a home in L.A. — despite having the money and skills needed to do it himself. "He's outside the system," Turk says. MUTUO articulated the rigidity of that housing system, including the regulations, the financing, material infrastructure and the lobbying behind who has access to materials, through concrete columns on a grid with utilitarian metal rising up. All the columns are hand carved, including two hand-carved totems made in northern Mexico and a center column of ceramic made in the same area. "There's an amazing contrast between the machine-made and the soul, things that humans have passed down for generations," Turk says, noting that it should inspire the viewer to question whether the two things can exist together and suggest that if we shatter the columns and design from the soul, houses could look a lot different. "This installation is a real metaphor and representation of the entire concept of the show, which is that yes, change can happen, but we've got to change our system and the barriers." The goal, Turk says, is to ensure more people have housing that functions for them and is inspiring for their lives. "Not my HUD house," a prototype by studio:indigenous, holds a lot of personal connections for its architect, Chris Cornelius, who grew up in HUD housing on a reservation in northern Wisconsin. The experience shaped his architectural practice, Turk says. During a master's class that Cornelius did at Harvard, they examined HUD housing on Indigenous reservations from southern Canada all throughout the U.S. and were struck by how alike they all were. They all used the same materials and were made in the same shapes — completely void of any connection to the specific cultures and identities they were building within. In his resulting prototype is a structure that constructed elements important to his identity and Indigenous heritage, elements that were not in the HUD house he grew up in. Along the exterior are a number of jingles, similar to the ones you would find on Indigenous dresses. These have an extra little meaningful element since they are also echoed in the Jeffrey Gibson punching bag within the Crystal Bridges collection. The jingles are tied on with leather strings and move when the wind blows. "This should talk about the performative and spiritual, the ritualistic aspect of what an Indigenous structure needs to have," Turk says. A hearth is a major element of this prototype, giving the family a place for ritualistic practices around a fire. It also allows them to have a place to stand in their home and look at the stars, something else important to Cornelius' identity. On the interior walls are stamps that read "pasteurized process American cheese donated by U.S. Department of Agriculture for food help programs not to be sold or exchanged." Turk says it's a conversation about the relationship between Indigenous people and the federal government, the struggle around removing their identity while also being dependent on the government for resources and housing. See Architecture Page 39 MUTUO's installation is a metaphor and representation of the entire concept of the "Architecture at Home" exhibit by placing at the forefront a high contrast between machine-made and objects humans have passed down for generations to point to design that starts with the soul rather than the grid. (NWA Democrat- Gazette/Andy Shupe) Totem House by studioSUMO adds a layer of historical context for the region into the spaces where we live. Its exterior is etched with a timeline of society-changing events from 1750 to today. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe) Pablo Perez and PPAA (Perez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados) created this prototype in Mexico City and then sent it to Northwest Arkansas, where it was assembled. Perez leaned into making a structure that connects with the natural world, rather than fighting it from the outset. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe)