An upcoming exhibition at the Center for Architecture in New York offers an alternative perspective on scaffolding. The show will present this so-called temporary structure as a new form of inhabitation and access. As part of the exhibition, an installation designed by OMA partner Shohei Shigematsu unfolds scaffolding’s potential for urban settings and provides additional exhibition space for showcasing photographs and drawings.
Divided into two sections—a historic background and case studies—”Scaffolding” features photographs, drawings, time lapse videos, and architectural models. The exhibition starts with a brief illustrated history and depicts the shift in material from wood to steel and aluminum. The show then continues into its main focus, a presentation of international case studies.
Organized around five themes—theaters, display structures, alternative modes of access, housing prototypes, and participatory self-build schemes—the featured experimental projects demonstrate unconventional ways of using scaffolding to create architectural structures. “Many of the projects on display,” says the press release, “explore new social relationships and collaborative processes that renegotiate the urban environment.”
“In other words, treating it as an architectural material beyond its usual role as a construction tool,” says Greg Barton, the exhibition’s curator.
Jim Stephenson/Courtesy Assemble
Assemble, Theatre on the Fly, 2012, West Sussex, U.K.
Florian Haydn
Peter Fattinger, Veronika Orso, Michael Rieper, and students from the Vienna University of Technology, Institute of Architecture and Design, add on. 20 höhenmeter, 2005, Vienna, Austria.
Courtesy Assemble
Assemble, Folly for a Flyover, 2011, London, U.K.
Courtesy Hatch Workshop
Hatch Workshop, Workers' Housing Prototype, 2017, Haryana, India.
Designed by OMA, “Scaffolding” opens Oct. 2 and runs through Jan. 18 at the Center for Architecture in New York.
