A Genealogy of Airport Landscape October 30, 2013–March 25, 2014 Sonja Dümpelmann, curator In the early decades of powered flight, the open fields used for the first flying experiments were turned into simple, level airfields and finally developed into…
February 17, 2014–March 23, 2014 Silvia Gmür, curator Reto Gmür, curator "The nature of space reflects what it wants to be. A Form emerges from the structural elements inherent in the form." -L.I. Kahn "The room is the beginning of…
“In one philosophy one thinks of form or design as primarily conceptual or cerebral, something to be generated as a pure thought in isolation from the messy world of matter and energy. Once conceived, a design can be given a physical form by simply imposing…
We are endeavouring to contemplate two fundamental aspects of architecture: comfort and constructivity. New comfort Until recently, architecture was created to segregate man from nature, as shelter, and a “comfortable” environment was created artificially within. Today, the distinction between the natural environment and the manmade…
October 30, 2013–December 19, 2013 Charles Waldheim, curator In the second half of the twentieth century, Chicago’s O’Hare Airport was the biggest and busiest facility of its kind in the world. Characterized by a seamless integration of transportation infrastructure and architectural expression, O’Hare…
October 16, 2013–December 19, 2013 Luis Callejas, curator Pamphlet Architecture 33. "Islands and atolls" by Luis Callejas / LCLA The competition for Pamphlet Architecture 33 asked previous authors in the series to nominate the architects and theorists whose work represents the most exciting design…
October 30, 2013–December 19, 2013 Pierre Bélanger, curator Airbases produce urban geographies and altitudinal ecologies. Whether military or civilian, active or closed, these infrastructures emerge from the technological development of aerial mobility and the contemporary growth of air power amidst the complexities of…
From 10,000 metres below the sea, to 35,000 kilometers in orbit above the surface of the earth, the infrastructure that supports urban life has reached unimaginable extents below ground, in the water, and across outer space. Re-profiling the conventional contours of the cities we live and the spaces…
October 30, 2013–December 19, 2013 Sonja Dümpelmann, curator In the 1950s and 1960s, landscape architect Daniel Urban Kiley (1912–2004) was commissioned to provide landscape designs for two of the first jetports built in the United States, Dulles International Airport…
Airport Landscape claims the airport as a site of and for landscape. Airports have never been more central to the life of cities, yet they remain peripheral in design discourse. In spite of this, landscape architects have recently reasserted their historic claims on the airfield…