BIG INABA MAD MASS: Four Proposals for Ansan opens today

Bjarke Ingels, Jeffrey Inaba, Yansong Ma, Minsuk Cho
Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan City, Korea

Four architecture offices, BIG, INABA, MAD, and Mass Studies have proposed an urban plan for Ansan, South Korea which will be exhibited at the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art in Ansan City beginning 17 December 2008.

Organized by Hong-hee Kim, Hyun Jeung Kim, Jeffrey Inaba

The joint project by the four firms, BIG (Copenhagen), INABA (Los Angeles), MAD (Beijing), and Mass Studies (Seoul) uses versatile architectural forms that change in size and use. The principals of the four offices, Bjarke Ingels, Jeffrey Inaba, Yansong Ma, and Minsuk Cho reinterpret the term ‘economies of scale’ to mean the value of a single architectural form that functions at several scales. The works are adaptable enough so that the same form can be enlarged or shrunk and still function as a building. They have the added capacity to dramatically change in size and transform in use from building to furniture to toy.

Given today’s economic instability, the architects propose an architecture that can be sized to accommodate changes in available funding. The forms have been developed so that if a project’s investment capital decreases, it can be scaled down; alternatively, if greater financing becomes available, the same form can be scaled up. These firms believe architecture does not have to be inhabitable and in tune with the human scale at just one size; it can be conceived with greater utility in mind so that the form can be enjoyed even when reduced or increased by 40, 50, or 60 percent. In the context of the exhibition, they have taken the idea of scalability further by developing works that function even when scaled 1,000 and 10,000 percent.

At the invitation of the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art (GMoMA), the offices designed a master plan and a set of four buildings in the city where the museum is located. The plan for a riverfront area of Ansan, a city of 550,000 inhabitants located near Seoul, includes housing, commercial, retail and municipal spaces. The proposed buildings which range in height from 80 to 400 meters and in length up to 1500 meters are displayed in the museum lobby in drawings, animations and four large models.

As an experiment in the economies of scale, the models are also designed as inhabitable objects in their own right. Each model of their urban plan is a furniture piece of their lobby plan. The three-dimensional representations of the buildings function as elements of GMoMA’s interior serving as a new bookshop, a set of seats and tables, a lounge area, and a reception kiosk. As a third variation, the forms will be produced at an even smaller scale as a reading lamp, light fixture, puzzle, and toy.

Architects have throughout time promoted their work through objects that are analogous to their designs for buildings. The architectural model helps audiences to visualize and appreciate a proposed building and in turn generate excitement, anticipation and demand for the project before it is built. In that sense, architecture has always been a practice of advertising scaled versions of itself. BIG INABA MAD MASS attempts to add another level of utility and promotion to this time tested practice by having the large-scale proposal advertise the small-scale version of the same form. The show’s architectural models have been made to draw interest in the urban plan while the urban plan was made to invite visitors to experience the works displayed in the show. 
BIG
Bjarke Ingels Group – BIG - is a Copenhagen based group of over 60 architects, designers, builders and thinkers operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and development.
www.big.dk

INABA
INABA is a Los Angeles-based firm founded by Jeffrey Inaba that specializes in transforming cultural research into urban design and architecture.
www.inabaprojects.com

MAD
MAD is a Beijing-based architectural design studio dedicated to creating innovative projects that combine a sophisticated design philosophy with advanced technology in the areas of architectural design, landscape design and urban planning.
www.i-mad.com

Mass Studies
Mass Studies was founded by Minsuk Cho in Seoul as a vehicle to critically investigate architecture in the context of mass production, intensely over-populated urban conditions and other emergent cultural niches. 
www.massstudies.com

BIG INABA MAD MASS
Four Proposals for Ansan
Bjarke Ingels, Jeffrey Inaba, Yansong Ma, Minsuk Cho
Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art
Ansan City, Korea

Exhibition Dates: 17 December 2008 to 15 February 2009

For visitor information go to: www.gmoma.org

Tel. +82 (0) 31 481-7000