CLOSE AD ×

Christian Kerez creates a unique multisensory experience at the Biennale's Swiss Pavilion

Incidental Space

Christian Kerez creates a unique multisensory experience at the Biennale's Swiss Pavilion

Switzerland’s own Christian Kerez, in collaboration with curator Sandra Oehy, brings an enigmatic architectural experience to this year’s Biennale’s Swiss Pavilion exhibition, titled Incidental Space.

With today’s prolific use of computation in architectural fabrication, Kerez’s design process and complex structure offers a refreshing, mysterious design that cannot be easily decoded. He returns us to the primitive, imaginative, inhabitable space that defies conventional research. Not at all like some emerging-technology users who are sometimes guilty of finding the “functional” aspect of a thing “post-creation,” ascribing something biomimetic “behavior,” of losing any relationship to humanistic experience, Kerez used point cloud scanning of dynamic particles—such as sand or sugar—to generate form. This results in a completely organic, random geometry whose physical incarnation creates a unique experience for visitors.

Evocative of a grotto-like experience from the inside, this self-supporting fiberglass reinforced concrete shelled structure features walls that thicken where necessary from .4 to 1.5 inches. The exterior’s ornamental crevices resemble a cloud’s backlit tonalities as it reaches the pavilion’s pinnacle skylight. When you enter, Kerez returns you experience to the primitive womb, with a complete change of scale, inviting you to explore barefoot, carefully float, and reconnect to you inner child’s naïve fantasy. The work is anything but a product of architectural construction, but almost becomes total product of our imagination.

Commissioned by Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetica head of Visual Arts, Marianne Burki, Rachele Giudici Legittimo, Coordinator, and Sandi Paucic, Project Manager for Swiss participation at the Biennale, this project was enriched by over 30 international collaborators and students, including ETH and DARCH, and sponsored by industry leaders, Holcim, Marty Design Haus, National Center of Competence in Research Digital Fabrication, and Adunic.

CLOSE AD ×