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This Is luxury Timepieces, property, jewelry: Designing for life at the top
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Architecture
Art on the Line A line is never just a line in the architecture of Oyler Wu, a much-lauded young American practice that is breaking ground in Taiwan. Words Carren jao
In the hands of Jenny Wu and Dwayne Oyler a line is anything but a boring, geometric object that passes through points P and Q. Instead, it is a problem that results in a wellspring of striking architectural solutions that have fed their almost decade-long practice, Oyler Wu Collaborative. “It’s never a single line that we’re interested in,” says Oyler. “It’s always a dense field of it.” Wu adds: “When you stand really far away, it becomes almost like a surface. But then when you get up close, you read lines as lines and the details of how it all comes together.” Over the years, the two have realized a 7.3-meter cantilevered canopy using aluminum tubing welded at every joint; an intricate folding ceiling structure that doubles as a display system for a Hollywood gallery; and an elaborate screen of twisting planes with a builtin bench using rope, among other experiments. With a cadre of architecture students, Oyler
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(CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT) Storm Cloud was a pavilion created for avantgarde architectural school Sci-Arc; Commissioned for design conference Dwell on Design, Screenplay is a 6.4-meter-long screen wall that had a seating component; Both enamored of the line and its potential to shape space, Dwayne Oyler and Jenny Wu partnered (top left) image clifford ho
to create some unforgettably dynamic spaces; From afar, the Taipei Tower seems to be enveloped in swerving lines; A rundown building is given new life with an intervention by Oyler Wu, who cut through parts of the building and wove rope through.
Wu fabricates each work, solving problems and learning as they go along. The issues they encounter give birth to further questions, which inspire the firm’s next projects. Based in Los Angeles—and soon in Taiwan, where they will open an office—the pair has gained a reputation for experimentation that transforms the humble line into a complex work of art. It invites visitors to engage with it, scrutinize its every twist and turn and, in the end, question the boundaries of architecture. It is a feat that has earned the firm an Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League in New York and the Presidential Award for Emerging Practice by the American Institute of Architects in Los Angeles. Oyler Wu has gained notice not just in the United States but also across the Pacific.
Earlier this year, the firm finished its first building project in Taiwan, turning a rundown five-story building into a premier sales center. With just 18 centimeters of exterior space to work with, Oyler Wu cut holes on the floor and walls of the existing building (inspired by American site-specific artist Gordon MattaClark) to create a light and viewing tunnel, then stretched fabric and rope through it. It was an approach the two had used on a smaller scale intervention they called “Screenplay.” The move transformed the structure’s confused façade into a new and exciting building that spoke of the future. Oyler Wu has similarly reinvigorating plans for the Taipei Tower, a 16-story residential building set to break ground on the same site in September. Battling conservative Taiwanese developer sensibilities that valued identical floor plans over experimentation, Oyler Wu managed to pass a proposal of “pixelated lines.” By employing well-placed exterior panels plus subtly shifting the building balconies, the firm added depth and visual interest to the tower’s façade without disturbing its well-ordered interior floor plan. The strategy also served to reduce heat gain, add privacy and create a noise buffer from a nearby elevated highway. Seen from afar, it would seem as if the building was enveloped in undulating lines, but a close look would reveal itself to be separate geometric screens, much like pixels in a digital photograph. It is this multiplicity of layers that Oyler and Wu strive for. “Our work is not just a oneliner,” says Wu. “It actually works in various layers and distances. You’re gaining something from different vantage points.” oylerwu.com
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