[architecture] IN THE AGE OF [digital] REPRODUCTION
Architecture presentation study
Professor: Erik M Hemingway
in University of Illinois Fall 2013
study of Alexander Eisenschmidt's
"CITY WORKS: PROVOCATIONS FOR
CHICAGO’S URBAN FUTURE" exhibition
_exhibit:
VISIONARY CHICAGO
BY Alexander Eisenschmidt
City Works was previously exhibited at the 13th International Architecture Biennale in Venice (2012) and has now returned to the city of its origin. The exhibition re-envisions a series of urban environments that are typical for Chicago in order to examine alternatives to the way architecture engages the city. In collaboration with David Brown, Studio Gang Architects, Stanley Tigerman, and UrbanLab / Sarah Dunn & Martin Felsen (who each produced one large models 1’x3’), the installation sets out to find potentials for spatial, material, programmatic, and organizational invention within the city. The four models are surrounded by a 160’-long panorama that shows a visionary city … a drawing entirely composed of historical unbuilt visions for the city of Chicago (created by Eisenschmidt and his team at the Visionary Cities Project). In addition, an iPhone app links the visionary drawings on the wall to the existing city by locating the different schemes and presenting vital information about the projects. Over the duration of the exhibition, the models will travel throughout the gallery, visit the different parts of the city’s visionary history, and, finally, come together to create a new collective project of the city – one that is intended as Provocation for Chicago’s Urban Future.
In the age of digital reproduction, using digital fabrication to present the exhibition in a small scale is the aim of this research. Based on the readings and study on Alexander Eisenschmidt’s work, the research produced several axonometric drawings, and a laser cut pop up model made from chip board to reflect the exhibition.