Architect Monica Ponce de Leon lectured on Disciplinary Transgressions at the Art Institute of Chicago this week. As a full-time academic (newly appointed Dean of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Michigan) and a full-time industry practitioner (Principal in Office dA), she is well-suited to speak on such a topic. She balked at the tired academic model of interdisciplinary studies and suggested plans to bring to the academy what her practice already incorporated: an amalgam of industrial design, architecture, urban design and engineering. More outward-reaching. Less navel-gazing.
She has a fascination with both digital production and hand-assembly. She often develops a system of flexible fabricated components to determine an aesthetically varied built structure. A project that begins as a small-scale exploration of materials and technology can transform into a site-specific installation, or when clients come knocking, into the surfaces and structures of an entire building.
Ponce de Leon's interest in surfaces, described as skins or clothing, was exemplified by Office dA's proposal for the House in New England. In order to cover the structure with twisting, winding strips of rubber in the construction phase, strange things occurred: collaboration. The rubber manufacturer did not want to be held liable for this modified use, so the installation and testing was then championed by the construction team who ultimately discovered a new way to use the material. Violà! A solution.
While Ponce de Leon's presentation at the AIC focused on the practical matters of materials, technology and client and site constraints, I wanted to know her thoughts about the overall impact and form of the building. How does she achieve such surprising and elegant geometries? Even among architecture "friends" she wasn't going to reveal everything.
Comments