projects | Viabizzuno progettiamo la luce

‘this is the task of architecture today. in this exhibition we have put together some of our current work, that is either recently completed, or in progress. we hope to expose in a more open manner, not a glossy presentation of an overview of our work, but a more open explanation of the doing of the architect. this does not mean that the aesthetics of presentation are avoided, rather they are balanced by an attempt to communicate thoughts and concerns that are still in our minds and are part of our process. in order to emphasise this, each project team was responsible for developing their own installation. we also want to avoid the idea that this process is anything but messy. the development of ideas is not consistent from project to project. every process is subject to different possibilities and limits. some projects develop intensely through a concentrate process of competition while others evolve through changes in circumsntaces and demands. some are elaborated through sketches and modifications and some evolve through a more mechanical process of revision and the examination of alternatives. there is only one way to experience architecture, which is trhough the finished building. all exhibitions of architecture must start from this simple understanding. photographs and images of completed projects are no compensation. we have therefore tried to give more insight into the process of design, showing it not as an act of individual genius, but as a collaborative and iterative method that is messy and unpredictable. a process which seeks to find ideas through a deeper understanding of place and purpose, rather than the imposition of ideas that confirm the formal prejudices of the architect, the client or even public opinion’. tratto dal libro di mostra ‘david chipperfield architects works 2018’ ‘an exhibition of architecture, unlike exhibitions of works of art, objects and products is a presentation of projects, realized or no. in vicenza it es exposed omething built or imagined. very often architecture exhibitions become installations, where the exhibition structure is more important for idea or for the exhibition content. this was not the case with the exhibition david chipperfield architects works 2018, set up last year at the Palladian basilica in vicenza; it was in fact a reflection, a review of the work developed or under development, an attempt to make others understand, insiders and not, a body of projects and achievements in progress. the exhibition was an instantaneous exhibition, a sort of photograph, with a very short shutter speed, to stop a moment of the projects still in motion; the attempt to represent an instant, part of a process. since the content of the exhibition is not homogeneous in terms of types, materials and project phases, also because it is generated by the four studios, berlin, london, milan and shanghai, which currently form david chipperfield architects, it was decided not to harmonize it but to enhance its diversity by including plurality and deliberately creating a mass of projects. on the outside, the half-light loggia lights up with constant light filtered by the palladium serlians, while on the inside a theatrical setting made up of wings illuminated uniformly throughout their surface appears sober and neutral. on one hand conceived mainly in relation to the content of the exhibition, projects and architecture and on the other hand conceived in relation to the environment of the container, the palladian basilica, monumental for dimensions and proportions. the panels and the modular lights made by unifor and illuminated by Viabizzuno, have been designed in such a way to allow curators until the last, to modify and vary the content in a flexible and dynamic way, to add and remove projects, following the shape and the atmosphere of every specific point of the basilica. the high screens made by henry timi and kvadrat have become a sort of blackboard where you can glue the materials of the projects as ‘post-it’, adhesive strips, easily positioned and removable in a visible way on the surface of the wings: twenty snapshots of the work of david chipperfield architects’. giuseppe zampieri