submono's sublog » exhibitions

Damascus

submono — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:49:43 +0000

Me and two colleagues went to Damascus for a couple of days to sign the contracts for the Syrian pavilion on the Expo 2010 in Shanghai. My last visit to Syria was over fifteen years ago and many things have changed and evolved for the better and we had a great and very successful time, thanks to the unbelievable hospitality of our hosts. Friendly, proud and optimistic people all the way.

Syria is definitely on its way towards a modern and open Arab nation without losing its cultural roots in the process.

Time is flying

submono — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:56:30 +0000

Wow, almost one month since the last blog entry. But there is simply no time to update more regularly. We are working on three major exhibitions at the moment and on top of that have just won the competition for the pavilion of Syria on the Expo 2010. While these are all very good news (popping a bottle of Champagne) it means an extraordinarily high workload and less time for other creative things.

Rendering of the Syrian pavillion

To keep myself fit and healthy I’m back to swimming (which also burns more calories than running : ). We have some really nice outdoor pools in the compound and I enjoy it very much.

Topping Out

submono — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:32:22 +0000

Today I was invited to attend the topping out ceremony of the German Pavilion for the Expo 2010. The topping out ceremony is a German tradition that celebrates the completion of the basic structure of a building.

Well, it’s really like this, when you’re suddenly surrounded by (other) two meters tall Europeans they are either Dutch or German. Well, in this case mostly German and so there was a nice and surprisingly big crowd present to marvel at the huge steel skeleton that is to be the German Pavilion and to enjoy German beer (of course) and food.

The only real drawback was the weather. A super hot and sticky, overly humid summer day in Shanghai that kept people flocking near the aircons in the food tents. I still don’t know how they want to handle this when the real Expo is up and people will have to queue for hours outside the main attractions.

Guess we’ll all find out soon enough

Graduation Time II

submono — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:28:07 +0000

Yesterday was the big day, a bunch of teachers, 24 grad students, and their final grad project presentations. A whole day of critique, evaluation and finally summarizing it all in a score going from 0% to 100%. Not an easy task, believe me. The students got divided into two separate groups to make sure that teachers don’t pour points over their own students (we all know how easy it is to give in to this temptation).

My students came out top of the class, all in the 90% range. You might imagine how happy and proud this makes me, that the work we did together made this possible. I’m humbled and thankful that I had the chance to accompany them, sometimes nudge them a little, sometimes push them into the right direction and also kick their asses when needed

Yay!

Graduation Time

submono — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:29:44 +0000

Yesterday one of my grad students got awarded the title “Outstanding Graduate of Shanghai”! Now that makes her prof very proud

artificial architecture | the natural and the manmade

submono — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 07:01:13 +0000

“human beings fashion an environment for themselves, a space to live in, suggested by their patterns of life and constructed around whatever symbols of reality seem important to them. most of all, that environment and those structures invest the vast indifference of nature with meanings intelligible to, indeed imagined by, mankind.” vincent scully

i came across this quote by scully while doing some research on artificial architecture.

artifical structures | raw

submono — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 09:32:27 +0000

i upgraded to a nikon d80 dslr. and suddenly i see the world in a different light. for me, shooting raw files opens up whole new possibilities to change images, play with the light, the colors (at the moment i’m a sucker for saturation , the perception and ambiguity of space. hopefully that all will play a stronger part in future exhibitions.

two fast shots (with some slower post) out of my window in the office:

click on the images to see the bigger versions.

the power of patterns | the fear of the empty space

submono — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:54:36 +0000

designers as well as there clients sometimes suffer from the malady of emptiness. the former in terms of a blockage of their creativity, the latter in the feeling that they might not get enough for their money, that empty 2D and 3D spaces are not “real design”. this is the ideal moment to bring patterns into play. patterns can be everything from a subtle tone in the background to break up a monochromatic space to a strong lead theme dominating its environment.

lately i’m very much into designing kaleidoscopic patterns made from architectural elements. i enjoy the moment of surprise when everyday elements come to live in a new way.

click on the images to see the bigger versions.

telling the story | storyboarding in exhibition design

submono — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 08:50:34 +0000

i’m using storyboards for pre-visualization and to further explore the perception of my designs from a visitor’s perspective. an exhibition is not about the space, the design or the exhibits but about how people will experience all these elements put together. in a word how well your story is told. storyboarding is old news in the film industry but i think it can also make a difference in the design of exhibitions.

siva | design workshop for the expo 2010

submono — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:08:52 +0000

i’m teaching space & exhibition design at the shanghai institute of visual arts. teaching there is a refreshing break from the mostly volatile and greedy chinese business environment. people at universities here think differently (well, guess they do everywhere). there’s a whole bunch of creative and very open people. i enjoy working with the students.

we did a three day workshop on secondary structures and queueing management on the expo 2010. that is, what to do with hundreds of thousands of people waiting long hours at 40 degrees celsius to get into the next pavilion?