Swiss strips: a light-hearted yet rigorous pavilion radically altered a grim Madrid courtyard.In 2002 and 2003, the national flag formed the parti of the temporary Swiss pavilion built by 2b Architectes in a courtyard of the Conde Duque, Madrid for ARCO ar·co adv. & adj. Music With a bow. Used chiefly as a direction to indicate the resumption of bowing after a pizzicato passage. Adj. 1. , the international art fair. A square cross was created by placing one rectangular box over another in the middle of the court. Using light steel construction, the upper box, which contained the exhibition area, was cantilevered symmetrically out from the lower one, which itself projected on either side of the upper one as two small square courts. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From the top of these courts, and the base of the exhibition area, strips of red canvas related the temporary piece with the top of the rather grim ground floor of the surrounding reddish stone Conde Duque, creating a festive space round the central pavilion, striped with shadows and infused with cheering red. Inside, the rectangles were white, neutral, anonymous, allowing people and exhibits to dominate. Canvas was chosen for its practicality and economy, also in respect for tradition, for it has been used to provide shade in Spain since the Romans used it in the velaria of their amphitheatres. In the upstairs exhibition area, movable floor-to-ceiling louvres allowed the space to be converted from self-contained white space to a translucent box, in which the outer world could be sensed, abstracted, through opal acrylic panel cladding The plastic or glass sheath that is fused to and surrounds the core of an optical fiber. The cladding's mirror-like coating keeps the light waves reflected inside the core. The cladding is covered with a protective outer jacket. See fiber optics glossary. . This box hovered over the carpet of canvas strips and, at night, could become a great lantern, animating an·i·mate tr.v. an·i·mat·ed, an·i·mat·ing, an·i·mates 1. To give life to; fill with life. 2. To impart interest or zest to; enliven: the surrounding space and throwing shadows of the canvas strips down into the surrounding courtyard as the sun did during the day. The jury was impressed by the economical way in which memorable spaces of very different kinds had been achieved, and by the rather un-Swiss insouciance in·sou·ci·ance n. Blithe lack of concern; nonchalance. insouciance lack of care or concern; a lighthearted attitude. — insouciant, adj. See also: Attitudes Noun 1. and jollity jol·li·ty n. pl. jol·li·ties Convivial merriment or celebration. jollity Noun the condition of being jolly Noun 1. of the whole affair, which was in the end generated by very Swiss rigour rig·our n. Chiefly British Variant of rigor. rigour or US rigor Noun 1. and understanding of materiality MATERIALITY. That which is important; that which is not merely of form but of substance. 2. When a bill for discovery has been filed, for example, the defendant must answer every material fact which is charged in the bill, and the test in these cases seems to . [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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