EXHIBITION
THE REASONS OFFSITE
curated by SUMMARY architecture financed by República Portuguesa - Cultura
"The Reasons Offsite" is an immaterial exhibition curated by SUMMARY, a young architectural studio based in Porto, Portugal. The project presents a collection of buildings and building systems significant in the historical evolution of modular and prefabricated architecture. This information is shown in virtual reality environment, through VR headset kits, which transport the audience to a 20x20m virtual space filled with panels and architectural models. The goal is to create a
158
radiography of the several stages of this evolution. Examples of different buildings are shown, from the 17th century to the present, from anonymous architecture to Jean Prouvé, Walter Gropius, Buckminster Fuller, Shigeru Ban or MVRDV. “The Reasons Offsite” also intends to point out conflicts between prefab building systems and traditional ones. Standardization vs. customization, machination vs. humanization, science vs. art are examples of the topics over the table. These conflicts are going to
be elaborated through the visions of Yona Friedman, Pablo Jimenez Moreno and Pedro Alonso. The contemporary context, with the World’s increasing urban population (in an unprecedented way), the growing need for immediacy based in an Uber/ Ikea/AirBNB-like lifestyle and the level of technological sophistication we have reached, motivates “The Reasons Offsite” as a rediscovery of the concept of prefabrication, understanding its history and envisaging its future.
