Hasta La Ideas

Two exhibitions on time christen Sydney’s newly-renovated Museum of Contemporary Art

by Alex Vitlin

Following an 18-month, $53 million redevelopment project, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia relaunched in late March. The addition of “Australia” at the end of its title is appropriate: the MCA is no longer merely great art sequestered in a hokey building in Sydney, it’s a modern museum on one of the most coveted pieces of real estate in the world.

In addition to the refurbishment of the original building (the Art Deco former Maritime Services Board building on Circular Quay), architect Sam Mitchell and the NSW Government Architects’s Office designed a new 4,500-square-meter wing. This five-story “Mordant” wing juxtaposes rigid, chiaroscuro architecture against the softer feel of the original sandstone building. Inside, it houses a 5.8m-high gallery, a library and a Digital Learning Centre, which will allow virtual access to the museum for every school in Australia. For many, the real draw will be the rooftop sculpture terrace (with a custom work by Hany Armanious) and its attendant cafe: there aren’t so many places that allow you to see the Bridge and the Opera House by barely turning your head.

The original building displays the MCA permanent collection. These pieces are acquired no more than 10 years after their creation, and currently include names like Ricky Swallow, Charlie Sofo, Simryn Gill, Tracey Moffatt and Shaun Gladwell. Robert Owen’s “Sunrise #3” adorns an entire wall directly opposite the museum’s collection of contemporary bark painting. The entrance hall and floors now embrace the harbor views, and provide a logical route through the collection, which couldn’t be said of the Museum’s previous incarnation.

The timing of the relaunch is auspicious: the museum was founded 21 years ago and, coincidentally or not, the feature exhibitions it has chosen to relaunch with both explore the concept of time.

Running through 3 June 2012, “Marking Time” comprises 11 artists working in an array of media with the common notion of time as journey. Jim Campbell has three works in the exhibition, but perhaps most moving is the installation “Last Day in the Beginning of March”, an attempt to recreate the final 24 hours of his brother’s life through visceral mimicries of light, heartbeat and rainfall.

Edgar Arceneaux draws straight onto the gallery walls in his “Drawings of a Removal”, dynamic and impermanent pieces that recall a trip he took with his father, rendered by the artist during the first week of the exhibition.

“Continent-Cloud”, by Rivane Neuenschwander, is an illuminated ceiling on which beans are pushed around by intermittently placed fans, and the roof of the gallery morphs into moving landmasses or shapes. Here, time is not only a human experience.

Across the entrance hall, Christian Marclay‘s “The Clock” gets its own dedicated space as a cinema, replete with couches. Showing for the first time in the southern hemisphere, this ambitious, engaging work provides a moment for every minute of the 24-hour day. Scenes from movies have been spliced to reference every minute of the day, at exactly that minute, and every Thursday until June 2012, The Clock will be open 24 hours per day. It’s an art project that uses film; it’s also a film acting as art. Either way, it possesses a curious narrative drive in which nothing is guaranteed, yet remains completely enthralling—probably a good metaphor for the redesigned MCA itself. “The Clock” is also on display through 3 June 2012.

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

140 George Street, Sydney

NSW 2000, Australia

A comprehensive look at 16 years of contemporary design spanning products, architecture and art installations

Aiming to rethink the way we interact with design in our everyday lives, Paris-based Matali Crasset creates unconventional work in nearly every area of design from products and interiors to architecture and art, asserting herself as one of the most acclaimed and intriguing designers in contemporary culture. Celebrating this extensive body of work is “Matali Crasset: Works“, a massive monograph spanning 16 years of diverse projects.

Organized in reverse chronological order and separated into color-coded sections whose graduated pages form an easily navigable and nicely graphic index, the book offers a visual timeline of Crasset’s design portfolio from 1995-2011 with insightful essays and more than 700 brightly hued images. Her clever and colorful designs create their own social narrative through multi-use spaces and objects in the designer’s distinct way that esteemed curator Zoe Ryan says extends “beyond traditional questions of form and function” in the book’s introduction.

Bucking conventional methods by publishing the introduction on the yellow hard cover, the anthology starts before even being opened, asking the reader, “Do Matali Crasset’s designs playfully return experience to its central place in our relationship with the world?” At the same time that Ryan points out Crasset’s boundless style, she outlines the designer’s three fundamental values—conviction, an heuristic approahc and a horizon—before we even open the book.

One clear example of Masset’s spirit of design can be seen in Phytolab, a transparent educational room where students learn the benefits of plant life simply by being surrounded by it. This unique design encourages guests to interact with the plants through gardening, drawing a connection to how we view and care of ourselves. The innovative laboratory of sorts embodies Casset’s drive to improve the way we experience design and navigate our surroundings.

The comprehensive “Matali Crasset: Works” is now available directly through Rizzoli and from Amazon as well. For a deeper look into Matali Crasset: Works see the gallery below.

The end of an era is at hand. Yesterday it was announced the New Yorker‘s longtime architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, will be leaving the magazine he’s called home for the past 15 years for greener, more ad-heavy pastures, to become a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The two magazines are, of course, both owned by Conde Nast, meaning the move isn’t a tremendous hike, and Goldberger has a history with VF, having contributed pieces here and there over the years. Still, it’s something of a major in-house coup, which the Observer has plenty of juicy details on, including that the critic hadn’t been getting along with New Yorker editor David Remnick, who he claims made getting stories into the magazine much more difficult, and that his decision to leave was in part related to a biography of Frank Gehry he’s in the middle of working on. On the Vanity Fair side, here’s what the magazine’s triumphant editor Graydon Carter had to say:

“This is an appointment that thrills me profoundly,” Carter said. “Paul is about as gifted a commentator on architecture, urban planning, and design as anyone you’re going to find these days—in other words, he’s just a brilliant writer.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Designed in Hackney: today’s project from the London borough of Hackney is the Hackney Shed, a low-budget garden office designed by architects Office Sian.

Oak-framed doors fold away from the facade to open the one-person workplace to the surrounding garden, which is located just behind the client’s house.

Library bookshelves are sandwiched between the exposed structural columns, while a skylight brings natural daylight in from overhead.

Office Sian also recently completed a Thai canteen elsewhere in London – see it here.

Architect Gurmeet Sian founded the studio in 2007 and their office is located on Penn Street, Hoxton.

Key:

Blue = designers
Red = architects
Yellow = brands

See a larger version of this map

Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.

Slideshow: faceted shards of anodised aluminium cover the four pointed hulls of this maritime museum in northern Ireland dedicated to famously ill-fated ship the RMS Titanic.

London architects CivicArts are responsible for the original design concept and local practice Todd Architects worked alongside them to deliver the completed building, which opened to the public this weekend.

A five-storey-high glazed atrium is positioned at the centre of the building, giving visitors access to each of the nine galleries contained within the four wings.

Acid-stained steel plates line an 18-metre-high wall inside this atrium, intended by the architects to reference the metal panels that were used to cover the body of the Titanic a century before.

Elsewhere in the building is a banqueting suite containing a replica of the Titanic’s iconic wooden staircase, as well cafes, restaurants and shops.

See more museums here, including our recent story about a Ferrari automotive museum.

Photography is by Christopher Heaney.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

BRINGING THE £97m TITANIC BELFAST TO LIFE

Architects join forces to Deliver World’s Largest Titanic Visitor Experience

Titanic Belfast will open its doors to the world on 31st March, 2012. The world’s largest ever Titanic-themed visitor attraction and Northern Ireland’s largest tourism project, Titanic Belfast is the result of a successful collaboration between the Concept Design Architects and the Lead Consultant/Architect Todd Architects.

Located in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on the site where the famous ship was designed and built, Titanic Belfast’s six-floors feature nine interpretive and interactive galleries that explore the sights, sounds, smells and stories of Titanic, as well as the city and people that made her. The building will also house temporary exhibits, a 1,000-seat banqueting suite, education and community facilities, catering and retail space and a basement car park.

CivicArts/Eric R Kuhne & Associates and Todd Architects have worked together with Harcourt Construction and a range of other partners to ensure the successful completion of Belfast’s newest landmark. Harcourt Developments engaged CivicArts / Eric R Kuhne & Associates as master planners for the Titanic Quarter site in 2005, with the aim of transforming Queen’s Island into a dynamic new waterfront.

The master plan for Titanic Quarter seeks to create a 21st century centrepiece for Belfast, combining retail, residential, business and cultural elements, all spliced together with public parks, promenades and gardens. Titanic Belfast was conceived as the cultural lynch pin of the scheme, giving a form to the wish for a focal point to unite the site’s various heritage elements. Having first investigated options for recreating Titanic at various scales, it was decided to design an entirely original structure that could also convey the wider narrative of Belfast, its industries and its people.

Todd Architects were commissioned to begin working with CivicArts in August 2008, and together they submitted the detailed scheme for planning consent. The local Northern Irish practice went on to oversee one of the most ambitious and challenging construction programmes in the UK and Ireland. The 14,000 sq m building took three years to complete – the same length of time as Titanic itself – and is designed with the potential capacity to accommodate up to one million visitors annually.

Eric R Kuhne, Founding Partner of CivicArts / Eric R Kuhne & Associates, commented: “CivicArts / Eric R Kuhne & Associates has worked for seven years to conceive, design, and create an international destination in Belfast that celebrates five centuries of its maritime legacy including the building of the RMS Titanic. As Concept Design Architects we have created an architectural icon that captures the spirit of the shipyards, ships, water crystals, ice, and the White Star Line’s logo. Its architectural form cuts a skyline silhouette that has been inspired by the very ships that were built on this hallowed ground.”

“Behind this shimmering crystalline façade, four dynamic ships hulls hold nine galleries. Glass balconies overlook the shipyard, drawing office, slipways, and Belfast city centre. The five-storey central atrium is inspired by the majesty of gangways, gantries, cranes that filled the void between the Titanic & Olympic when they lay side-by-side upon the slipways.”

“Titanic Belfast restores RMS Titanic to these shores. Its design anchors the profound spirit of invention & innovation from a century ago in a new form that retells the epic story of the building of these great ships. The scale, location, interiors and stories within the galleries make this the largest and most authentic Titanic visitor attraction in the world. The architecture speaks of the genius of Belfast as one of the world’s great historic shipbuilding cities, capturing the essence of over 28,000 workers in the Harland & Wolff’s shipyards.”

Paul Crowe, Managing Director of Todd Architects, commented: “Todd Architects has invested almost four years of work into this truly global project delivering a building which has changed Belfast’s skyline and will help transform international perceptions of the city itself. Developing a building that reflected the ingenuity, ambition and scale of Titanic has been an immense professional challenge – one we are delighted to have met.

“Titanic Belfast has a complicated geometry, providing a challenging build programme which required ground-breaking construction techniques. Its stand-out exterior façade, which replicates four 90 ft high hulls, is clad in 3,000 individual silver anodized aluminium shards, of which two-thirds are unique in design. The resolution of the geometries involved required the use of sophisticated 3D-modelling, completed by Todds in-house, in a process of ‘virtual prototyping’ which we developed specifically for the project.”

“Titanic Belfast also incorporates the best design and technology available. For instance, the building adopted an integrated design approach in line with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group III Guide Lines and is on course for a BREEAM Excellent status. Plus, like Titanic, the project was completed on budget and to a strenuous time constraint which demanded completion in advance of the forthcoming centenary of the Titanic’s maiden voyage in April 2012.

“This is a landmark development for Northern Ireland which we believe will demonstrate the ability of iconic architecture to shape internal and external perceptions. Belfast has come far in the past 15-years and a statement building such as Titanic Belfast reflects and reinforces the city’s renewed sense of civic pride and cohesion.”