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Half full, NOT half empty

January 13, 2010 | Bruce N. Wright

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Essentially, I am an optimist. I tend to see the glass as half full and that, little by little, refinements can be made to better ourselves. That is why I’m looking forward to 2010. For one thing, many top-notch architects around the world have announced new projects with fabric elements, such as a recently proposed bubble—an inflatable meeting hall, actually—to adorn the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., designed by Diller Scofidio & Renfro. According to the New York Times’ architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff, the proposed translucent fabric appendage (which would be installed twice yearly for May and October events) “would transform one of the most somber buildings on the mall into a luminous pop landmark. It could be the most uplifting work of civic architecture built in the capital since I.M. Pei completed his East Building of the National Gallery of Art more than 30 years ago.”*

This is exciting and positive news, but from our perspective not a new idea, as this journal reported several years ago on a similar design for the invitation-only, annual Serpentine Pavilion designs for the Serpentine Gallery in London, specifically the pavilion designed by Rem Koolhaas and Cecil Balmond (see FA Mar/Apr 2007.) The good news is that this technology has finally arrived in this country at a time of economic stress, offering hope that institutions like the Hirshhorn can shake off the doldrums of diminishing funds and still shake up the cultural landscape (albeit within tighter budgets).

Other recent projects of hope: Various Architects’ transportable mobile performance venue (see Mar/Apr, pg. 30); Parsons Brinckerhoff/FTL Design Engineering Studio’s Rosa Parks Transit Center (see Sept/Oct, pg. 6); Zaha Hadid’s Burnham pavilion in Chicago (see Nov/Dec, pg. 6); and the streets of New York City are to be improved with UrbanSHEDs of fabric (see Samples this issue, pg. 6.)**

You, too, can bring light and hope to the design world. Consider using fabric to reduce cost, extend a project’s potential and life cycle, or improve future adaptability of facilities, as shown with the Hirshhorn Museum project. The potential is endless.