New York, NY
completed 2009
in collaboration with ifau & Jesko Fezer
Artists Space is a non-profit exhibition space that supports artistic experimentation and dialog in contemporary culture. We were asked to re-invent Artists Space as a way of exploring the institutional history and creating a new relationship between display and work and public encounter.
The design process was an inclusive exchange between the director, the staff and the collective design team. A limited budget and tight project schedule informed the construction techniques and material systems used in the project. The result was simple plan for the new environment, based on flexibility and openness. The everyday routines and social interactions of the workplace overlap with the space of display. An open frame work of wood studs defines the negotiated boundary between staff workspaces and the public areas of the gallery. Bookshelves mounted between the wood studs create a bookstore and social bar on one side of the partition and a more private archive on the other side.
The exhibition space is left open. The floor is unfinished, and a long bench occupies the corner window area where the director’s office once stood.
