September 06, 2013

Exhibit Shows How Maquettes, Models, and Prototypes Inform Architecture

The full-scale prototype for Loblolly House is a central feature of the Prototyping Architecture exhibition, which runs at Cambridge Galleries Design at Riverside and Waterloo Architecture in Ontario, Canada, October 17 to December 17, 2013.

Organized in conjunction with the ACADIA 2013 Adaptive Architecture conference held October 24-27, 2013, the exhibition includes a post-digital prototype for the Passion Façade of Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Família Basilica; a laser-sintered additively manufactured violin; lightweight prefabricated fabric formwork for on-site cast concrete; an additive manufactured titanium aircraft component; and a Rolls Royce high pressure turbine blade cast and "grown" as a single nickel alloy crystal.

Prototyping Architecture explores the importance of prototypes as a vital means of design development in contemporary architecture and emphasizes research and experimentation.  
 
Curator and University of Nottingham director of architecture Professor Michael Stacey says that  

"the show celebrates vital methods of design development with new technologies that potentially herald the beginning of a second industrial revolution. The exhibition forms a bridge between architecture, engineering, and art with exhibits that are truly beautiful.”

 
The exhibition began in the New Prototyping Hall at The University of Nottingham, England, and traveled to The Building Centre, London. It is facilitated by ACADIA and sponsored by Qbiss Air, KieranTimberlake, CAB, Schöck Ltd and S4AA.