Meditations on Piero presents contemporary sculptures by British/Canadian artist Geoffrey Smedley alongside over thirty rare books from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The sculptures draw their inspiration from a series of drawings of the human head by the great Italian Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca. The exhibition relates these drawings and(...)
Octagonal gallery
2 May 2001 to 16 September 2001
Meditations on Piero
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Meditations on Piero presents contemporary sculptures by British/Canadian artist Geoffrey Smedley alongside over thirty rare books from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The sculptures draw their inspiration from a series of drawings of the human head by the great Italian Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca. The exhibition relates these drawings and(...)
Octagonal gallery
John Soane 1753-1837
Described by Henry James as “one of the most curious things in London,” Sir John Soane’s Museum was built as the picturesque and enigmatic home, office, collector’s trove, and personal showplace of one of history’s most innovative architects. This exhibition is a major re-evaluation of Soane’s career, as well as a reconsideration of his importance to the history of modern(...)
Main galleries
16 May 2001 to 3 September 2001
John Soane 1753-1837
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Described by Henry James as “one of the most curious things in London,” Sir John Soane’s Museum was built as the picturesque and enigmatic home, office, collector’s trove, and personal showplace of one of history’s most innovative architects. This exhibition is a major re-evaluation of Soane’s career, as well as a reconsideration of his importance to the history of modern(...)
Main galleries
Money Matters: A Critical Look at Bank Architecture surveys the history and cultural significance of bank architecture, focusing on bank architecture as a building typology rather than in the context of a single architect or architectural firm. Challenging the standard notion that bank buildings are repetitive, dull and conservative, the exhibition reveals banks as(...)
Main galleries
14 November 1990 to 24 February 1991
Money Matters: A Critical Look at Bank Architecture
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Money Matters: A Critical Look at Bank Architecture surveys the history and cultural significance of bank architecture, focusing on bank architecture as a building typology rather than in the context of a single architect or architectural firm. Challenging the standard notion that bank buildings are repetitive, dull and conservative, the exhibition reveals banks as(...)
Main galleries
Wohnhaus Schlesisches Tor—also known as Bonjour Tristesse—in Berlin and Punt en Komma in The Hague are Álvaro Siza’s first built works outside his native Portugal. The two projects resemble one another in size, scale, program, and ambition: both were built in the 1980s, both are results of a distinct attitude towards the city, and both were social housing projects(...)
Octagonal gallery Keyword(s):
Álvaro Siza, Punt en Komma, The Hague, Bonjour Tristesse, Berlin
24 September 2015 to 22 May 2016
Corner, Block, Neighbourhood, Cities. Álvaro Siza in Berlin and The Hague
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Wohnhaus Schlesisches Tor—also known as Bonjour Tristesse—in Berlin and Punt en Komma in The Hague are Álvaro Siza’s first built works outside his native Portugal. The two projects resemble one another in size, scale, program, and ambition: both were built in the 1980s, both are results of a distinct attitude towards the city, and both were social housing projects(...)
Octagonal gallery Keyword(s):
Álvaro Siza, Punt en Komma, The Hague, Bonjour Tristesse, Berlin
This exhibition presents American architect Ben Nicholson’s search for order, meaning, and logic in a world of art, science, and mystery. The Laurentian Library in Florence, a masterwork by Michelangelo designed in 1524–25, contains fifteen pairs of terra cotta panels bearing complex geometric patterns that have been long hidden from view. Nicholson studied the panels at(...)
Octagonal gallery
11 December 1996 to 9 March 1997
Uncovering Geometry: Ben Nicholson at the Laurentian Library
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This exhibition presents American architect Ben Nicholson’s search for order, meaning, and logic in a world of art, science, and mystery. The Laurentian Library in Florence, a masterwork by Michelangelo designed in 1524–25, contains fifteen pairs of terra cotta panels bearing complex geometric patterns that have been long hidden from view. Nicholson studied the panels at(...)
Octagonal gallery
Shaping the Great City explores the role of city-building throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire, both before and after its dissolution, and expands architectural history by bringing to the fore a rich variety of modernisms. In the years surrounding World War I, these strains of modernism both reflected and shaped the many national and multinational identities of the(...)
Main galleries and hall cases
14 May 2000 to 15 October 2000
Shaping the Great City: Modern Architecture in Central Europe, 1890–1937
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Shaping the Great City explores the role of city-building throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire, both before and after its dissolution, and expands architectural history by bringing to the fore a rich variety of modernisms. In the years surrounding World War I, these strains of modernism both reflected and shaped the many national and multinational identities of the(...)
Main galleries and hall cases
This exhibition will explore the third-year undergraduate arts course, “A305: History of Architecture and Design, 1890–1939,” offered by the Open University via television and radio broadcasts that aired from 1975 to 1982. Beyond its many innovations in new forms of higher education, the Open University—founded in 1969 with headquarters in Milton Keynes, UK—was a key(...)
15 November 2017 to 1 April 2018
The University Is Now on Air: Broadcasting Modern Architecture
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This exhibition will explore the third-year undergraduate arts course, “A305: History of Architecture and Design, 1890–1939,” offered by the Open University via television and radio broadcasts that aired from 1975 to 1982. Beyond its many innovations in new forms of higher education, the Open University—founded in 1969 with headquarters in Milton Keynes, UK—was a key(...)
The beginning of the 1950s was a moment of global upheaval. From India to Morocco, from Guatemala to Indochina, the process of decolonization gained momentum and the Cold War began. Architects working or acting as experts in the non-Western areas of the globe could no longer plan as if sites were terrains vague and people were mute subjects. The end of colonial(...)
Main galleries Keyword(s):
Casablanca, Chandigarh, Le Corbusier, Jeanneret, Morocco, Punjab, India, Morocco, modernism, Africa, Takashi Homma, Yto Barrada
26 November 2013 to 20 April 2014
How architects, experts, politicians, international agencies and citizens negotiate modern planning: Casablanca Chandigarh
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The beginning of the 1950s was a moment of global upheaval. From India to Morocco, from Guatemala to Indochina, the process of decolonization gained momentum and the Cold War began. Architects working or acting as experts in the non-Western areas of the globe could no longer plan as if sites were terrains vague and people were mute subjects. The end of colonial(...)
Main galleries Keyword(s):
Casablanca, Chandigarh, Le Corbusier, Jeanneret, Morocco, Punjab, India, Morocco, modernism, Africa, Takashi Homma, Yto Barrada
Starting from diverse premises and points of view, Cedric Price, Aldo Rossi, James Stirling, and Gordon Matta-Clark each engaged in a radical rethinking of the status, history, and purpose of architecture. out of the box: price rossi stirling + matta-clark brings the ideas of these four pivotal figures of the 1970s into dialogue through a group of archives that recently(...)
Main galleries
23 October 2003 to 6 September 2004
out of the box: price rossi stirling + matta-clark
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Starting from diverse premises and points of view, Cedric Price, Aldo Rossi, James Stirling, and Gordon Matta-Clark each engaged in a radical rethinking of the status, history, and purpose of architecture. out of the box: price rossi stirling + matta-clark brings the ideas of these four pivotal figures of the 1970s into dialogue through a group of archives that recently(...)
Main galleries
Ábalos Herreros constructed landscapes—or, more precisely, assembled them—by crudely juxtaposing a cast of semi-familiar characters. Novel to Spanish architecture in the 1980s, this pragmatic method of appropriation was developed and consistently employed as part of their design process. Borrowing, incorporating and transforming allowed ÁbalosHerreros to absorb the(...)
Octagonal gallery
23 July 2015 to 13 September 2015
Landscapes of the Hyperreal: Ábalos&Herreros selected by SO – IL
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Ábalos Herreros constructed landscapes—or, more precisely, assembled them—by crudely juxtaposing a cast of semi-familiar characters. Novel to Spanish architecture in the 1980s, this pragmatic method of appropriation was developed and consistently employed as part of their design process. Borrowing, incorporating and transforming allowed ÁbalosHerreros to absorb the(...)
Octagonal gallery