The Banvard Gallery is set for a busy April.
The Ohio State community will have many opportunities to see an array of projects that range from the works of a world-renowned architect to those of Knowlton School of Architecture professors and students. The exhibitions featured are the João Nunes: Landscape Works, Right of Way and Looped Matter.
João Nunes: Landscape Works
Part of the João Nunes: Landscape Works exhibit outside the Banvard Gallery. Credit courtesy of Phil Arnold
The Glimcher Distinguished Visiting Professor Exhibit will feature João Nunes, a renowned European architect. The exhibit is technically taking place outside of the Banvard Gallery in the main hall of Knowlton. It will feature 51 different four-by-four-foot models, some created by Nunes. The architect has visited OSU three times this year to work with and give advice to students in the landscape architecture program. Based on these interactions, 11 students have devised models.
Paula Meijerink, an associate professor in landscape architecture, worked closely with the students in developing their models as well.
“Our challenge was to show a material deposit that’s been an accumulation of time,” she said. “We asked them to combine this with one particular built work by Nunes and to represent that in a model.”
The models range from samples of different soils in shopping malls to papers that had been purposely left on the floor that collected an accumulation of footprints. All of the models have to do with the theme of passing of time.
Meijerink recommends that students see the exhibit for a variety of reasons.
“It’s insightful to see the concepts from the classroom implemented in these models and see how they bring to the foreground the themes of a famous architect like Nunes,” she said.
Landscape Works will be on display until Sept. 15.
R.O.W.
The Right of Way exhibit features work from students studying city and regional planning, a major that also is in the School of Architecture.
“We’ve never had the gallery space,” said Sarah Davis, a third-year in city and regional planning. “Usually it’s landscape or regular architecture.”
Davis and 10 other students studying city and regional planning, have designed a re-creation of a road. The first half of the road is chaotic and dangerous with narrow sidewalks, no bike lanes, dimly-lit roads and the landscape not taken into account. The road then transitions to a safe one which rectifies these issues, showing what good urban planning does. Once the viewer crosses the road, they are presented with a summary of all the facets of the road plan.
Davis strongly encourages that students view the exhibit so they can see what a direct impact city and regional planning has on their everyday lives.
“City planning is one of those things that you don’t see how it impacts your daily life until you experience it,” she said. “Our exhibit shows that good planning impacts just walking down the street.”
Davis also said she hopes it might pique students’ interest in the major.
“Most people don’t go in college with a (city and regional planning) major,” she said. “It’s not really something you learn about in high school.”
R.O.W. will be on display until Friday.
Looped Matter
Carrie McKnelly is the 2015-16 recipient of Knowlton’s LeFevre Fellowship, which is awarded annually to an emerging architect who has the potential to make a lasting mark on the profession. Knowlton provides McKnelly a platform to do her research over the academic year. McKnelly will be unveiling some of that research, specifically exemplified by structures and knit patterns, in her exhibit, Looped Matter.
“I’m exploring a play on using material to find forms,” McKnelly said. “The exhibit basically explores how a line is indeterminate; how you can program a line to do so many things.”
Through the sewing of knit shapes, McKnelly said that she hopes to hint at a new form of tensile architecture.
McKnelly is set to present a lecture at Knowlton on April 13 at 5:30 p.m. in the Gui Auditorium. She said she plans to discuss three of her projects but will mostly focus on the one on display. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Looped Matter will be on display from April 13 to Sept. 15.
