Emma Vining Hand Knitting: Sensing Spaces at the Royal Academy

The Sensing Spaces Exhibition at the Royal Academy is a fascinating journey through installations created by seven architectural practices from six countries and four continents. Set within the traditional galleries and covering 23,000 square feet, these amazing large scale installations use scale, texture, light and colour to challenge all the senses.

Diebedo Francis Kere
Photo by Emma Vining

From the exhibition's central hexagonal room, with interactive information on each architect and the installations, I firstly went into the room with the installation by Chilean architects, Pezo von Ellrichshausen.

Pezo von Ellrichshausen
Photo by Emma Vining

This wooden structure dominates the traditional gallery and juts out overhead. Closer inspection reveals several ways to explore, including a 60m ramp and four spiral stairways. As well as an elegant structure in its own right, this installation also allows you to get up close to the fantastic traditional gallery ceiling.

Pezo von Ellrichshausen
Photo by Emma Vining

RA Ceiling decoration viewed through the Pezo von Ellrichshausen installation
Photo by Emma Vining

In two darkened rooms, beautiful and mesmerising structures are revealed as your eyes get used to the low light. I went in here several times as I loved the way the delicate bamboo structure emerges and changes as you walk around it. Japanese Architect, Kengo Kuma, has also included scent in the structures.

Kengo Kuma
Photo by Emma Vining

The bright colour and chaos of architect, Diebedo Francis Kere's creation is all part of the fun and interactive experience in his installation. His design narrows at one point to bring people together and make them interact within the space. There were a large number of people adding to the structure both from the inside and the outside!

Diebedo Francis Kere
Photo by Emma Vining

Moving around in a beautiful forest is the feeling produced in the installation by Chinese Architect, Li Xiaodong. Following the illuminated pathways leads to several small rooms and eventually to an impossibly huge room. Closer inspection reveals the clever use of huge mirrors. The effect is dramatic and freeing.

Li Xiaodong
Photo by Emma Vining

Grafton Architects from Ireland have chosen to work with light and have a dramatic installation in two rooms that uses light and dark to wonderful effect. On first entering the dark room, the structure felt heavy and oppressive, but as I spent some time in the room I particularly enjoyed the effect of silhouetted figures entering and leaving.

Grafton Architects
Photo by Emma Vining

Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura from Portugal have installations in the courtyard and around the arched doorways within the galleries. Outside in the courtyard is a consideration of the the traditional architecture with columns in various stages of deconstruction. Inside the galleries, casts of the interior arches change the perspective of the familiar doorways and elongate room entryways.

Eduardo Souto De Moura
Photo by Emma Vining

Alvaro Siza
Photo by Emma Vining

In the excellent film at the end of the exhibition, the architects themselves describe how creating installations can be an important part of their process when designing new buildings and structures.

My overwhelming feeling about this exhibition is a sense of wonder about the ability to change perception of a known space. I have been to many exhibitions at the RA in these galleries, but I have never seen their scale used and manipulated in such a creative way before. This is an excellent exhibition for all ages!

Emma Vining Hand Knitting

Monday, 10 March 2014

Sensing Spaces at the Royal Academy

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