Florian Idenburg’s (associate professor of architecture) firm SO – IL has completed the installation of Spiky – a canopy of expanded metal mesh – in the Beijing Olympic Park. Spiky was realized as part of the 5th China International Architectural Biennial 2012 in Beijing, which included installations by Dean Mohsen Mostafavi, Herzog & de Meuron and Zaha Hadid.
Spiky is an artistic gesture that falls in the interstice between building and art. Made from metal sourced in the nearby northeast region of China, it is geometrically designed and cut with techniques that can only be called cutting-edge. Unlike ordinary shelter with its protective function, the conical mesh is simultaneously solid and porous, creating an ambiguous relationship to the surroundings and inviting reflection on how we interact with the built environment.
