Six Prototypes for Triple Candie’s New Home

Stefan Dettmeier Architekten, Münich FutureDesign Lab, London Fabio Giannotti, Olivone, Switzerland M.A.G.—The Modern Architecture Group, New York Natsagura Kazuko, Tokyo New Media Collective, Berkeley, California

September 27, 2007 (New York)—Triple Candie is pleased to present “Welcome to Tomorrowland,” an exhibition of newly commissioned, large-scale, architectural study models that envision six possible futures for Triple Candie. The competition is the culmination of an eighteen-month planning process, partially funded by the Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, that seeks to rethink the basic purposes and activities of the organization.

The study models range in scale from walk-in to table-top and offer widely varying scenarios. Many respond to a specific aspect of Triple Candie’s current programming. Tokyo-based Natsagura Kazuko has proposed a new home for Triple Candie’s permanent collection of art reproductions; her building’s spiral-shaped design suggests a cross between a church and a temporary homeless encampment. Swiss architect Fabio Giannotti has reenvisioned Triple Candie’s Matthew Higgs Society as a rustic-modern hovel, able to accommodate only one person at a time. Stefan Dettmeier Architekten’s “Pavilion for the Common Object” is part neo-classical folly, part Chinese garden pavilion. The portable Pavilion would contain an ever-changing selection of mundane objects for contemplation.

Other proposals respond more to Triple Candie’s evolving philosophy. Take, for example, that of the Modern Architecture Group (M.A.G.), the only New York-based firm to submit to the competition. M.A.G. has designed an industrial shed with artistic surrogates permanently built into the structure. Or that of the London-based FutureDesign Lab, which has channeled Archigram and other utopian architectural firms from the late 1960s to propose a small one-story community center embedded in a cluster of towering walls and topped with a large helium balloon. The New Media Collective, Berkeley, has suggested that Triple Candie abandon its gallery programming altogether and build a tower for web, TV, or radio transmission.

“Welcome to Tomorrowland” was fully conceived and built by Triple Candie, recycling materials from former installations. The architectural firms are fictional.