Friday, October 24, 2008 at 7pm is Opening reception of Oyler Wu Collaborative's gallery installation: Live Wire.
Live Wire, designed and built by architects Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu, is aptly titled: it is shockingly aggressive in its pursuit of taking over and exploiting the gallery space with its expressive performance.
This installation is a muscular yet diaphanous stair with minimal connections to the walls. It is a fully functioning stair (yes, you will walk on this thing) constructed of 2400 feet of aluminum tubes. These tubes were first assembled at SCI-Arc's metal shop. Fragile by themselves, the welded tubes swayed on the shoulders of Dwayne Oyler, Jenny Wu, and the students as they carried them part by part into the gallery space.
Even with the 2x4 wooden scaffolding holding up majority of the tubes (and the workers), its amazing balancing act is an anxious pleasure to watch. On the stability of this installation, the architects consulted Buro Happold. This tripartite cantilevering Cloverfield of a stair will stand on its own and support more than 100 pound per square foot on top of its treads.
The trepidation I have felt, seeing this mutant monster stair in construction, will be a fragmentary side note on the opening night: when I am actually experiencing what is sure to be one of the most spectacular feat of architectonic performance ever exhibited in SCI-Arc.
Defiance over gravity has always been architecture's wet dream. The tectonic expressiveness and the architects' mastery of lightweight materials posit this installation as an exemplar in that nocturnal wonderland.
Opening reception: Friday, 10.24.08 from 7-9pm
This is written on October 17, 2008 by Robert Cha: A SCI-Arc Student.
One quibble with your commentary, though, zen: Not all architects dream of defying gravity. Where gravity is concerned, many are happy submissives.
"Anxious pleasure" on the other hand is the perfect descriptive. It looks beautiful. Please post pictures here of the opening? I want to see it with people on it - anxious but joyful people.
dammson. Please come by on the opening night. The scaffolding will be gone by then as well... I am not working on the installation -just in love with it.
The stair consists of a set of 6 continuous loops attached in 6 sequences. Each has its own purpose in conjunction with the others. some are more structural, some serve other purposes such as the rise and run of the stair, others perform the function of hand railing and shear.
Each loop was assembled separately as a connection of 15-30 angles, then welded back together, assembled, and fit into the jig.
the last half dozen exhibitions in the gallery have left me completely cold. (there may have been a good one in that half dozen, i just got so tired of being disappointed that i stopped paying attention for a while).
[haha - sometimes in conversation, I do say "less than three" ... most people understand it as "heart," make :) ]
Sorry for crashing this thread - we need more of these. Discussions from eyes on the street.
As a second iteration of the stair, I would want to see colorful but translucent stair treads sheets (3Form, perhaps) to assist in articulating stair and railing.
Just Why, that would be gorgeous. But I think each tread plus its "wing" could have a single color (I'm infatuated lately with simple brightly-colored acrylic).
Interesting mindfuck going on here - in order to acheive a minimal aesthetic, a conventional wood framed stair is built only to act as falsework for a less substantial final structure.
I disagree on the points of "falsework," "less substantial," and your assumption as to the architects' intention of "achieving minimalism."
After admitting that divergent criteria exist for judging architectural performance, I want to ask: do you think that strict engineering performance or economic frugality should be the dominant judgment criteria for architecture? Also, how many architectural works can you name that did not use "falsework" of scaffolding?
Besides the "stair" element, the contrapposto "wing" element is every bit as important in the context of the gallery space. The wing engages the space in a way that accentuates the height of the form and effectively adds to the mood (or call it effect) of the users of the space as it creates drastic shift in perception of scale for those walking on or below the stair.
Also, the term "minimal aesthetic" is misleading. The aesthetic is not minimal, and the fact that the architects titled this project Live Wire should be an indicator that they are not interested in achieving minimalism.
I have no such preconceptions about architectural performance as you suggest. You may interpret the project however you like, but in my view it is essentially a formal exercise, and as such I'm going to interpret it formally. Whether the intentions of the designers are as you say or as I do unclear from the exhibition statement...:
The stair, often relegated to pure functional use, is a testing ground for weaving together a multitude of architectural ideas, ranging from the manipulation of light, geometry, and structure to vertical circulation. Live Wire is aimed at suggesting an expanded definition of architectural elements, one that surpasses boundaries of simple functions and suggests intangible results.
...which I find to be a steaming pile of unintelligible jargon. Too bad, because if they had set out just to make something cool (which is enough) they would have done it.
It looks more like art with 2x4's. So funny that way.
Exhibition statement above, is poorly written. It means; "If it is not this, it could be that." That is usually a good signal for bad art.
Janosh, formwork is traditional and expected, and keep in mind that formwork can and often is reusable.
On the other hand, I pretty much agree with your 'steaming pile' assessment - I don't need it, though if it's fun for designers to write that about their own work, why not?
Oct 20, 08 7:36 am ·
·
guess the word
1. extremely or excessively excited or agitated
2. elaborated to excess; excessively complex or ornate
3. Archaic. wearied or exhausted by overwork.
"A somewhat __________ but still effective way to get the answer is to search one of the definitions in quotes at google."
Howski Snovksy, your name makes me laugh out loud, though I think it's only funny to me because I misinterpreted its genesis.
So I don't "get" it, but I still like it.
Oct 20, 08 12:40 pm ·
·
As far as I know, it's a proper name in Per--Corell languidich.
Oct 20, 08 12:54 pm ·
·
"Now even you make a thousand new names for 3dh what's the idea -- none of you claim the credit anyway, no one say "See happy crowd what I share with you" ---- That's what come from replacing architecture etics with howski snovsky."
--Per--Corell
Yeah i must say one of the best parts of working on this installation was cuting-out a peice of sci-arc's gallery wall to connect the landing to the mezanine catwalk. Demolition Theropy my way taking out some aggression from past projects.
All have to say is come check this out and enjoy some Mid-term pin-ups down the hall (Friday @ 7pm).
Just a side note make sure you wear pants unless you are an exhibitionist then in that case have fun showing off your unmentionables.
Howski Snovsky what are you talking about?
inside jokes in a public form like this are stupid.sorry.
LED signal light. you missed the piont of the discription, I beleive it was to rais interest and allow people to ask their own questions. By the way this installation surpasses art its architecture. therefore your comment was poorly written. I'm sorry it's true. good day.
t.v., I was making a point that even if I don't understand the verbage associated with the stair (the genesis of Howski Snovsky's name), I can still enjoy the stair itself (Howski's name).
It's not really an inside joke, it's an analogy, though a failed one, it seems.
Speaking of opaque, that's one thing this stair is NOT and I love it - plus I'm just happy to see us discussing architecture for a change. Carry on.
Oct 20, 08 2:32 pm ·
·
What I'm talking about is: when I see images of the stairs, the word that comes to mind is overwrought. Hence, an overwrought way of getting to overwrought, just like the stair.
Nothing wrong with "overwrought." 200 years of Baroque architecture and art is based upon the idea of being "overwrought."
It's paradoxical to see one person commenting on minimalism, and other on its elaborate appearances in regards to its form.
It's great. In my mind, such divergent opinions expose the manifold richness of this project.
Oct 20, 08 4:56 pm ·
·
make that elaborated to excess appearance.
"...in essence the Baroque involved: a) a bifurcation of reality and illusion, b) pervasive mirroring (figuratively and literally), and c) reality reenacting its own illusory mirror." --guess who
Good design often amounts to a honing-in process.
Simply being overwrought doesn't get you to baroque, but an overwroughtness honed-in might just be the ticket.
i would have <3 it if it was 1 continuous tubing.
i like greg lynn's excellent 'idea' of building the entire house structure from one continuous pipe.
it does look very nice. a bit like an insect armature. i saw it like oscar schlemmer's 'slat dancer' climbing to 'tatlin's tower.'
will it really be utilized as a stair from sci arc catwalk into the gallery?
I have actually been ignoring this thread because of the title for a while now.
I thought it some random Archinect garbage.
However, having now read the thread.
The project is awesome, in it's parasiticness. Meaning the way it hangs from the wall and extends (via the wing) into the gallery space.
I don't think it pushes any particularly boundaries of art vs architecture at least not more than any of the millions of other such "architectural" installation.
And as a formal excersise in craftmaking and pushign the technological boundaries of production et al, i agree with Orhan that it would have been way mor einterestign if it had been one extruded piece of metal instead of all the individuals welds.
Good photos grid. I don't think we are going to see this physical criticism of the conventional grammar of stair construction have much resonance... let's just agree that it looks cool.
Tripartite cantilevering Cloverfield of a stair: "Live Wire" by Oyler Wu Collaborative
Friday, October 24, 2008 at 7pm is Opening reception of Oyler Wu Collaborative's gallery installation: Live Wire.
Live Wire, designed and built by architects Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu, is aptly titled: it is shockingly aggressive in its pursuit of taking over and exploiting the gallery space with its expressive performance.
This installation is a muscular yet diaphanous stair with minimal connections to the walls. It is a fully functioning stair (yes, you will walk on this thing) constructed of 2400 feet of aluminum tubes. These tubes were first assembled at SCI-Arc's metal shop. Fragile by themselves, the welded tubes swayed on the shoulders of Dwayne Oyler, Jenny Wu, and the students as they carried them part by part into the gallery space.
Even with the 2x4 wooden scaffolding holding up majority of the tubes (and the workers), its amazing balancing act is an anxious pleasure to watch. On the stability of this installation, the architects consulted Buro Happold. This tripartite cantilevering Cloverfield of a stair will stand on its own and support more than 100 pound per square foot on top of its treads.
The trepidation I have felt, seeing this mutant monster stair in construction, will be a fragmentary side note on the opening night: when I am actually experiencing what is sure to be one of the most spectacular feat of architectonic performance ever exhibited in SCI-Arc.
Defiance over gravity has always been architecture's wet dream. The tectonic expressiveness and the architects' mastery of lightweight materials posit this installation as an exemplar in that nocturnal wonderland.
Opening reception: Friday, 10.24.08 from 7-9pm
This is written on October 17, 2008 by Robert Cha: A SCI-Arc Student.
Official details are on SCI-Arc's website
http://www.sciarc.edu/exhibition.php?id=1291
The entrance to SCI-Arc's parking lot is at
350 Merrick Street, Los Angeles 90013, between Traction Avenue and 4th St in downtown Los Angeles.
Southern California Institute of Architecture is located
960 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013
213-613-2200
2 thumbs up
One quibble with your commentary, though, zen: Not all architects dream of defying gravity. Where gravity is concerned, many are happy submissives.
"Anxious pleasure" on the other hand is the perfect descriptive. It looks beautiful. Please post pictures here of the opening? I want to see it with people on it - anxious but joyful people.
?
Are there any sketches explaining what you're trying to do?
It's a tripping hazard.
is it high enough to actually get to the 4th street bridge or the roof of the depot through these stairs? that thing looks like it's 20' tall.
or i can actually just go and look at the thing...
dammson. Please come by on the opening night. The scaffolding will be gone by then as well... I am not working on the installation -just in love with it.
It looks like it creates a deep section with the bent bar. Are they welded together like a chain link?
And then what about the four inch sphere thing?
Do you have a glass guard rail?
Hand rail?
The stair consists of a set of 6 continuous loops attached in 6 sequences. Each has its own purpose in conjunction with the others. some are more structural, some serve other purposes such as the rise and run of the stair, others perform the function of hand railing and shear.
Each loop was assembled separately as a connection of 15-30 angles, then welded back together, assembled, and fit into the jig.
Construction Documentation:
http://oylerwu.com/overview.pdf
Website:
http://www.oylerwu.com
Sigh.
i <3 this stair!
the last half dozen exhibitions in the gallery have left me completely cold. (there may have been a good one in that half dozen, i just got so tired of being disappointed that i stopped paying attention for a while).
"I less than 3 this stair"?
[haha - sometimes in conversation, I do say "less than three" ... most people understand it as "heart," make :) ]
Sorry for crashing this thread - we need more of these. Discussions from eyes on the street.
As a second iteration of the stair, I would want to see colorful but translucent stair treads sheets (3Form, perhaps) to assist in articulating stair and railing.
Just Why, that would be gorgeous. But I think each tread plus its "wing" could have a single color (I'm infatuated lately with simple brightly-colored acrylic).
i less than or equal three this stair...
i menage a trois this stair...
Interesting mindfuck going on here - in order to acheive a minimal aesthetic, a conventional wood framed stair is built only to act as falsework for a less substantial final structure.
Janosh
I disagree on the points of "falsework," "less substantial," and your assumption as to the architects' intention of "achieving minimalism."
After admitting that divergent criteria exist for judging architectural performance, I want to ask: do you think that strict engineering performance or economic frugality should be the dominant judgment criteria for architecture? Also, how many architectural works can you name that did not use "falsework" of scaffolding?
Besides the "stair" element, the contrapposto "wing" element is every bit as important in the context of the gallery space. The wing engages the space in a way that accentuates the height of the form and effectively adds to the mood (or call it effect) of the users of the space as it creates drastic shift in perception of scale for those walking on or below the stair.
Also, the term "minimal aesthetic" is misleading. The aesthetic is not minimal, and the fact that the architects titled this project Live Wire should be an indicator that they are not interested in achieving minimalism.
I have no such preconceptions about architectural performance as you suggest. You may interpret the project however you like, but in my view it is essentially a formal exercise, and as such I'm going to interpret it formally. Whether the intentions of the designers are as you say or as I do unclear from the exhibition statement...:
The stair, often relegated to pure functional use, is a testing ground for weaving together a multitude of architectural ideas, ranging from the manipulation of light, geometry, and structure to vertical circulation. Live Wire is aimed at suggesting an expanded definition of architectural elements, one that surpasses boundaries of simple functions and suggests intangible results.
...which I find to be a steaming pile of unintelligible jargon. Too bad, because if they had set out just to make something cool (which is enough) they would have done it.
It looks more like art with 2x4's. So funny that way.
Exhibition statement above, is poorly written. It means; "If it is not this, it could be that." That is usually a good signal for bad art.
...'or economic frugality should be the dominant judgment criteria for architecture'...
-YES
no stairway to heaven!
Janosh, formwork is traditional and expected, and keep in mind that formwork can and often is reusable.
On the other hand, I pretty much agree with your 'steaming pile' assessment - I don't need it, though if it's fun for designers to write that about their own work, why not?
1. extremely or excessively excited or agitated
2. elaborated to excess; excessively complex or ornate
3. Archaic. wearied or exhausted by overwork.
"A somewhat __________ but still effective way to get the answer is to search one of the definitions in quotes at google."
Talk about adding to the mood.
I thought that the project statement was pretty clear; and that the stair achieves the goals as stated, besides being gorgeous.
If 'frugality' is what you're looking for, I'd say the SciArc gallery installations are the wrong place to start.
Howski Snovksy, your name makes me laugh out loud, though I think it's only funny to me because I misinterpreted its genesis.
So I don't "get" it, but I still like it.
As far as I know, it's a proper name in Per--Corell languidich.
"Now even you make a thousand new names for 3dh what's the idea -- none of you claim the credit anyway, no one say "See happy crowd what I share with you" ---- That's what come from replacing architecture etics with howski snovsky."
--Per--Corell
Yeah i must say one of the best parts of working on this installation was cuting-out a peice of sci-arc's gallery wall to connect the landing to the mezanine catwalk. Demolition Theropy my way taking out some aggression from past projects.
All have to say is come check this out and enjoy some Mid-term pin-ups down the hall (Friday @ 7pm).
Just a side note make sure you wear pants unless you are an exhibitionist then in that case have fun showing off your unmentionables.
Howski Snovsky what are you talking about?
inside jokes in a public form like this are stupid.sorry.
LED signal light. you missed the piont of the discription, I beleive it was to rais interest and allow people to ask their own questions. By the way this installation surpasses art its architecture. therefore your comment was poorly written. I'm sorry it's true. good day.
t.v., I was making a point that even if I don't understand the verbage associated with the stair (the genesis of Howski Snovsky's name), I can still enjoy the stair itself (Howski's name).
It's not really an inside joke, it's an analogy, though a failed one, it seems.
Oh thanks for explaining. sorry for insulting you if any? good piont i agree.
No, it's ok, t.v., I was being too opaque.
Speaking of opaque, that's one thing this stair is NOT and I love it - plus I'm just happy to see us discussing architecture for a change. Carry on.
What I'm talking about is: when I see images of the stairs, the word that comes to mind is overwrought. Hence, an overwrought way of getting to overwrought, just like the stair.
Nothing wrong with "overwrought." 200 years of Baroque architecture and art is based upon the idea of being "overwrought."
It's paradoxical to see one person commenting on minimalism, and other on its elaborate appearances in regards to its form.
It's great. In my mind, such divergent opinions expose the manifold richness of this project.
make that elaborated to excess appearance.
"...in essence the Baroque involved: a) a bifurcation of reality and illusion, b) pervasive mirroring (figuratively and literally), and c) reality reenacting its own illusory mirror."
--guess who
Good design often amounts to a honing-in process.
Simply being overwrought doesn't get you to baroque, but an overwroughtness honed-in might just be the ticket.
Howski,
Thanks for the 10 cent art historian's take.
What's the structural system? Does the stair deflect a lot when you scale it? s this part of the program?
What about how it is organized? the parti?
Is there a quick sketch?
How does the wing work? Is it a cantilever?
Typology?
Save the "bifurcation's" for the ladies you're trying to impress. ;-)
make, you're jealousy is showing.
i would have <3 it if it was 1 continuous tubing.
i like greg lynn's excellent 'idea' of building the entire house structure from one continuous pipe.
it does look very nice. a bit like an insect armature. i saw it like oscar schlemmer's 'slat dancer' climbing to 'tatlin's tower.'
will it really be utilized as a stair from sci arc catwalk into the gallery?
i think after greg lynn's last installation, we should be cautious of his 'ideas', at least if they relate to structure.
FYI
open riser stairs arent allowed in LA
it's one of those child-sitter codes...
t.v. person,
what are you saying? Did you fart?
yes , that is exactly what happened i think it was the burrito i ate for lunch that day.
mmmmmmmmmmm...burritos
t. v. person, hurry, you need Subtle Butt.
I have actually been ignoring this thread because of the title for a while now.
I thought it some random Archinect garbage.
However, having now read the thread.
The project is awesome, in it's parasiticness. Meaning the way it hangs from the wall and extends (via the wing) into the gallery space.
I don't think it pushes any particularly boundaries of art vs architecture at least not more than any of the millions of other such "architectural" installation.
And as a formal excersise in craftmaking and pushign the technological boundaries of production et al, i agree with Orhan that it would have been way mor einterestign if it had been one extruded piece of metal instead of all the individuals welds.
I posted some pictures from the opening here
Where's the cantilever?
I thought that it was supposed to hang off the wall.
Good photos grid. I don't think we are going to see this physical criticism of the conventional grammar of stair construction have much resonance... let's just agree that it looks cool.
That's it?
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