Material Performances: PennDesign Architecture Faculty in Practice

Reception: Wednesday, November 18, 6:00pm

Materials are the inspiration of many a design project. In this exhibit Ben Krone, Jonathan Scelsa and Brian Phillips—architects and faculty members in the Department of Architecture at PennDesign—demonstrate their inventiveness in re-conceptualizing the architectural possibilities of common and at times ubiquitous materials: canvas, polypropylene, felt and fiber cement. In a chance encounter with rain, light, sound and surface inscriptions, what was once common is transformed into a material with significantly enhanced performative characteristics.

This exhibit introduces us to the form-finding promise of planar sheet polymers (Scelsa’s Plastic Flowers); the environmental capacity of high performance canvas (Krone’s Canopy); the ornamental aptitude of cementitious panels (Phillips’ Tattoo/ Skinny House); and the sound absorptive potential of wool felt (Krone’s RMDH Music Experience). Each of the four projects featured in Material Performances ask us to look anew at the infinite possibilities for design that existing materials afford when we actively interrogate their performative dimensions.

The exhibition is curated by Franca Trubiano, Assistant Professor and Associate Chair, PennDesign Architecture.