Reorient - Migrating Architectures

September 8th, 2006

"Re:orient – migrating architectures" explores the local aspects of China ’s global significance and increasing influence. The project seeks to forecast possibilities which are now detectable only along retail channels, but which will, in all likelihood, determine the built environment, which transforms under the pressure of ever cheaper products. The project follows up this train of thought with the presentation of spaces, architectural devices and materials that create new contents, and indicate ways of turning these constraints of the market to our benefit, demonstrating how to infuse the mass products, which are designed to have a short life-span, with lasting cultural values.

The Hungarian entry for this year’s Venice Architecture Biennial is an installation that presents an alternative contemporary architectural experience built from thousands of functioning networked Chinese toys.

Instead of form they focus on the system, as an alternative to authored design they created DIY methods, re-appropriating cheap and ubiquitous technologies.

The website provides growing in-depth information about the different parts to the project as well as the system qualities of their architectural experiment in Venice and all the code used is provided open source. I only wish I could make it to Venice to see it.

Chief co-ordinator is Attila Nemes along with Adam Somlai-Fischer co-ordinating the installation and Samu Szemerey the website. A selection of the research texts are available to read here. A full list of the people involved can be found here. Below are the links to the individual projects that make up the whole installation.

Cat bricks		Ultrasonic garden
Cellular sound wall		Mist kitchen
Radio arbour		LED Lilies
Wired cars		Gate
Shading waves		Flair™ folding
Beeping bushes		Bluespot

Entry Filed under: Audio, Devices, Furniture, Interactive, Scuplture/Installation