6 July 2010

Architects build small spaces

Architecture has been a passion of mine for many years and Friday Late at the V&A has become a recent habit so it when the two combined I cast work weariness aside and plunged in.

Architects build in small spaces is an exhibition of, er, small spaces built by architects.

These diverse spaces are spread throughout the museum which adds to the fun greatly as the V&A is wonderfully confusing and exploring it takes you past unexpected pleasures.

Luckily one of the spaces, Ark, was in the central courtyard so was easy to find! It was the only organic space and it worked well surrounded by unnaturally straight walls and windows.

Other spaces included a house on stilts, a block of stone with narrow corridors and small rooms carved in to it and a confusion of white and clear plastic.

Another space was a tall bookcase.

It was several stories high and while it could hold dozens of people only four were allowed in at a time as it wobbled in just the way that you would expect a tall Ikea bookcase to wobble.

The walls were composed of books that you were encourages to pause and read.

The final space I went to was architecturally not that remarkable but I did not realise that I had walked in to a performance until the actors started talking in loud voices. They moved around the structure, a tower of metal and red curtains, squeezing past us voyeurs as they conversed.

It's because of evenings of unexpected delights like this that I keep going back to the V&A.

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