The Reasons Offsite, an exhibition on modular and prefabricated architecture, was created in Portugal by the studio SUMMARY and is traveling around the world. The exhibition has been shown in Albania (at Tirana Architecture Week, in September 2018) and in the United States (at the Salt Gallery of the Boston Society of Architects, in March 2019). It now has two more editions confirmed for this year, in Edinburgh and Weimar, the latter as part of the Bauhaus centenary celebrations.
In developing this project, SUMMARY collaborated with several architects and researchers from different parts of the world involved in research and curation, such as Pedro Alonso & Hugo Palmarola, Pablo Jimenez-Moreno, Jorge Christie & Martín Alvarez, and Yona Friedman.
The exhibition's objective is to analyze the evolution of modular and prefabricated (“offsite”) architecture from the 17th century to the present day, through a critical and forward-looking perspective. The Reasons Offsite presents 25 buildings or construction systems that pioneered the field of prefabricated and modular construction, including projects by world-renowned architects as well as entirely anonymous designs.
This work features the classic triptych of any architectural exhibition: images, texts, and models. In this case, however, these elements are presented virtually. Visitors use an Oculus Rift Kit that transports them to a 20x20m virtual space, where they can walk through the exhibition, interactively select the content they want to view, and even handle the exhibited models to analyze them from all angles. It is, therefore, an immaterial exhibition that does not require transporting or installing physical objects, and therefore produces no waste or debris from successive assembly and disassembly. This aspect also contributes to the exhibition's flexibility. Since it is not dependent on physical space, it can be hosted in venues of varying sizes and configurations. This exhibition medium also relates directly to the content itself, as virtuality is an inherent characteristic of “offsite” architecture: it is produced in one location but assembled and used elsewhere, in a different reality.
The current context—the rapid growth of the global urban population, an increasing demand for immediacy driven by lifestyles associated with brands like Uber or IKEA, and the level of technological sophistication we have reached—motivated the development of The Reasons Offsite as an investigation and an attempt to rediscover the concept of prefabrication, sharing its history and speculating on its future.
Throughout 2019, The Reasons Offsite will be on display at the Edinburgh College of Art, from June 20 to 30, and at the Neufert Box in Weimar, from September 28 to October 11.
General Information
Project Name: The Reasons Offsite
Project Type: Curatorial Project, Architecture Exhibition
Curation: SUMMARY (more information: www.summary.pt / info@summary.pt)
Participants:
Pedro Ignacio Alonso & Hugo Palmarola, Pablo Jimenez-Moreno, Jorge Christie & Martín Alvarez, Yona Friedman
SUMMARY Team:
Samuel Gonçalves (executive director), Inês Rodrigues (project manager), João Meira (architect), Borbála Papp (architect), Luca Sabbadini (VR programmer)
Support: Porto City Council
This article was written by Pedro Vada. The translation is powered by AI.
