PETER COOK/CRAB STUDIO
TOWARDS COMFO-VEG
April 6 – May 13, 2012
SCI-Arc Gallery

Friday, April 6, 7pm: Opening Reception & Exhibition Discussion with Peter Cook and SCI-Arc Director Eric Owen Moss

Los Angeles, CA (March 5, 2012)—The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is pleased to present “Towards Comfo-Veg,” a large scale, site-specific installation designed for the SCI-Arc Gallery by architect and artist Peter Cook and partner Gavin Robotham of London-based CRAB Studio. Building on CRAB’s internationally recognized experimental work, "Towards Comfo-Veg" introduces an almost completely light-tight, multimedia experiential space welcoming visitors through a single point of entry and leading towards hints of an invented and dreamlike world.

A dark, blue tunnel filled with a reassuring yet peculiar soundtrack, introduces a series of peep holes filled with small objects and pictures, further augmented by an additional video projection at the end of the corridor, showcasing CRAB projects and fascinations. A series of winglike, lightweight kites sit above, reminding the viewer of the underlying and consistent search for “lightness.” Turning into the main space, the embryonic Comfo-Veg, a soft sofa sculpture, lines the length of the installation with a backrest of varying height. Created out of a continuous snake of veg colored fabric, the Comfo-Veg invites visitors to sit down and admire a more abstract series of projections of future CRAB ideas. A soundtrack in this area will reinforce the ambiguous nature of the creeping forms and augment the two territories, while a third soundtrack—just before you leave—picks up on the chatter of the CRAB Studio itself.

About CRAB Studio/Cook Robotham Architecture Bureau
Set up in 2006, CRAB augments the trajectories of Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham. A noted English architect, writer, and educator, Peter Cook is a founding member of the 1960s radical experimentalist group Archigram. As Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London, Cook has been a pivotal figure within the global architecture world for over half a century. His design for the Kunsthaus Graz (2003), with Colin Fournier, was a runner up for the Stirling Prize, bringing Cook’s work to a wider public. His achievements with Archigram have been the subject of numerous publications and public exhibitions and were recognized by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2004, when Cook was awarded RIBA’s highest award, the Royal Gold Medal. Gavin Robotham graduated from the Bartlett UCL where he was British Institute Prizewinner and subsequently Knox Scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He was the designer of the interiors of the Stirling Prize-winning Magna Centre in Rotherham. Together, Cook and Robotham have won competitions for the Law School of the Vienna Economics University, and the Architecture School of Bond University, Australia (both under construction). They also won the Verbania Theatre competition and numerous other prizes including three versions of the Taiwan Tower in Taichung. Their joint, extensive teaching experience acts as a focus for young architects from all over the world. Cook and Robotham occasionally host reviews for student and office groups. They are closely associated with the Bartlett and Architectural Association in London, ESA in Paris, Lund University in Sweden, and SCI-Arc in Los Angeles. www.crabstudio.carbonmade.com

--
Public Programs
Parking and admission are free. No reservations are required. Lectures, talks, and discussions are broadcast live online at www.sciarc.edu/live.

SCI-Arc Public Programs are subject to change beyond our control. For the most current information, please visit www.sciarc.edu or call 213-613-2200.

Parking and Hours
The entrance to SCI-Arc's parking lot is at 350 Merrick Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013, between Traction Avenue and 4th Street in Los Angeles. The SCI-Arc Gallery is open daily from 10am–6pm.

About SCI-Arc
The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is dedicated to educating architects who will imagine and shape the future. It is an independent, accredited degree-granting institution offering undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture. Located in a quarter-mile-long former freight depot in the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles, the school is distinguished by its vibrant studio culture and emphasis on process. SCI-Arc’s approximately 500 students and 80 faculty members—most of whom are practicing architects—work together to re-examine assumptions, create, explore and test the limits of architecture. SCI-Arc faculty and leadership have garnered more than 300 national and international design awards and recognitions, including Progressive Architecture awards, American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards, and the prestigious Jencks and Pritzker architecture awards. SCI-Arc is ranked second in design and computer applications in the 2012 America’s Best Architecture Schools survey from DesignIntelligence, and #1 graduate and #2 undergraduate architecture school in Western U.S. SCI-Arc is located at 960 E. 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013. www.sciarc.edu