September 21, 2015
Kuehn Malvezzi
Architects are artists. Many people misunderstand this, believing that being sculptural is key, but being an artist means the opposite. It involves being conceptually autonomous while also working for a client, and those who are getting this right are avant-garde. In a world crowded with man-made objects and spaces, architects today have to become curators who […]
Architects are artists. Many people misunderstand this, believing that being sculptural is key, but being an artist means the opposite. It involves being conceptually autonomous while also working for a client, and those who are getting this right are avant-garde.
In a world crowded with man-made objects and spaces, architects today have to become curators who transform what exists by the processes of selecting, reducing, and rearranging, rather than by adding new self-referential objects. We conceive of our practice as curatorial design.
As in conceptual art, we have to focus on relationships and overcome our fetish for spectacular object-hood. Our winning design for the new Insectarium-Espace pour la vie in Montreal epitomizes this paradigm shift, consisting of a heterogeneousvarietyofspatialtypologiesunitedbyanimmersivevisitorexperience, and embedded in the existing Botanical Garden of Montreal.
In our work, we look at local conditions through a detective’s lens and search for inherent and hidden meanings. It is a way of conceptualizing a site-specific intervention, of being precise and relational, without any genius loci, any emulation of the found environment.
Kuehn Malvezzi
Location: Berlin
Founded: 2001
Size: 30 people
Founder: Simona Malvezzi, Wilfried Kuehn, Johannes Kuehn
Komuna Fundamento 13th Architecture Biennale, Venice, 2012
The House of One, Berlin, 2012
