Archinect - News

Materials & Applications to move out of Silver Lake home and expand programming into other LA neighborhoods

2018-03-27T19:49:00-04:00

Materials & Applications—the part gallery, part research space, and part pocket park, that has been a cultural center for the Los Angeles architecture community since 2003—will be moving out of its Silver Lake home.

"Our mission is to bring creative experimentation into public space and public dialogue and we will continue to do so by expanding into new spaces and new audiences throughout Los Angeles" the group stated in an e-mail sent out today with the news.

The non-profit cultural organization's expansion will include the launch of two new spaces—a new office headquarters in Chinatown and a tiny storefront/satellite space on Sunset Blvd that will host intimate events and displays. In lieu of their permanent space, Materials & Applications will broaden their programming into various neighborhoods throughout the Los Angeles area with temporary projects and multi-sited exhibitions.

The organization tested out this process in 2016, with theirTURF: A Mini-Golf Project, which transfor...

Driveway urbanism: Archinect Sessions One-to-One #3 with Jenna Didier, founder of Materials & Applications

2015-11-23T13:53:00-05:00

This week's One-to-One guest is Jenna Didier, founder of the Materials & Applications research and exhibition space in Los Angeles. Didier started the driveway-sized venue in the front yard of her Silver Lake home in the early 2000s, looking for a space to establish community and exchange for like-minded architects, artists, designers, and makers in the city. M&A has since hosted installations by architects such as John Southern (Urban Operations), Jenny Wu and Dwayne Oyler (Oyler Wu Collaborative) and Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues (of Ball-Nogues Studio), among many others, and regularly holds events and gatherings.

More recently, Didier also founded Urban Applications: an initiative of M&A that works directly in and with local communities on environmental installations. We spoke about her work with robotics and fountains, and how creative communities are formed in sprawling metropolises.

Listen to Archinect Sessions One-to-One #3 with Jenna Didier:

iTunes: Click here to listen and ...