Envelopes

Pratt Manhattan Gallery will present "Envelopes," a sustainable architecture exhibition that includes brand new work that examines the architectural skins of buildings and their role as a sensorial space that envelopes the body. The exhibition will run from March 5 through May 5, 2010 and will be celebrated with an opening reception on Thursday, March 4 from 6-8 p.m. The exhibition and opening reception are FREE and open to the public.

The exhibition is guest-curated by Christopher Hight, an associate professor at Rice University's School of Architecture. His inspiration for the exhibition title and concept originated from the parallels between the envelope of a building and the envelope of the human skin; the building envelope repeats the metaphor of the building as a body and as a prosthetic second skin that allows human beings to exist within a hostile environment. The work in the show explores relationships between systems -- human, animal, plant, and energy flow -- as a site for architectural innovation in the 21st century. Participating architects and architecture firms include:

• !ndie Architecture, a Denver-based firm that engages in a range of architectural and urban questions through research projects and practice, with a specialization in digital and industrial technology, housing, and suburbanism
• HouMinn Practice, a Houston and Minneapolis-based firm recognized for its research and innovative design whose collaborative efforts reach beyond the discipline of architecture
• Mary Ellen Carroll—MEC design studios, a New York-based conceptual artist, with Kevin Topek of Permaculture Design, LLC; and Carlise Vandervoort
• Michael U. Hensel and Defne SunguroÄŸlu Hensel are research directors and board members at OCEAN Design Research, an international, interdisciplinary, and independent research firm that conducts research by design in the intersection of architecture, design, music, and science with the goal of improving the current built environment and anthropobiosphere
• Nataly Gattegno and Jason Kelly Johnson are founding design partners of Future Cities Lab, an interdisciplinary design and research collaborative bridging architecture and landscape urbanism with material sciences, robotics, and engineering
• Philippe Rahm, an architect who practices out of Paris and Lausanne and focuses on “meterological” architecture
• Tobias Emilsson, Jonah Fritzell, Marcelyn Gow, Ulrika Karlsson, and Chris Perry of servo, an international research and design collaborative that focuses on the development of architectural environments through the proliferation of electronic and digital equipment and interfaces
• Weathers, a Chicago-based environmental design office that studies social, spatial, and organizational structures and their implications to lifestyle and environment.

More Info (PDF)