Urban Art Pavilion

Our urban peep show begins with a strategy, not a structure.  This strategy is to conflate a series of oppositions: icon and context, folly and landscape, and art and spectator, through a reconfigurable assembly composed of eight connected components that can be located in three site types in Calgary.  Like the peep show, where eroticism stems from the intimate relationship between the voyeur and the desired object, each booth profile stems from an organized physical relationship between the spectator and the work on display.  Here the booths operate at a glance to entice various patrons– passers-by, tourists, and urban opportunists.  Their specific profiles organize a relationship between an individual viewer and piece of art through a shared surface, a go-between that fosters a quick peek or perhaps a lingering gaze.  The viewer/art interface then affects the outer urban realm: the lounge-type booth not only offers art, but a place to recline; the seat-type booth, a short rest; the bar-type booth, a place to write or set your coffee.  On the outer side, ledges provide places to lean, set down packages, or sit down, perhaps doubling as a bus stop.  We propose not a single specific site, but a systematic response to shifting sites and disassembly.  The eight booths, as a taxonomy of art and viewer interfaces, would specifically be repositioned each year upon reassembly into one of three site types: the urban plaza, the sidewalk, and the plus-15 walkway.  The first configuration, the Quad, is organized for an urban plaza site, where spectators can easily move around and into the display field.  The Edge configuration would be placed in a sidewalk site to both define the linear boundary, and create a double-sided programmatic wall.  And finally, the Aisle configuration is designed for sitting in the plus-15 walkway system, where linear progression creates positive and negative display spaces in series.  These configurations not only sequence display, but allow the desired object to attract, compel and surprise its viewer.  Over time and successive installations, the materiality and geometries of the booths allow them to be iconic, alerting the memory to previous installations, yet their reconfigurability always allows them to respond to the specific conditions of current time and site.   Thus, they stake out urban space without discreet edges, allowing for them to both avoid the excesses of architectural folly and remain distinguishable from the surrounding landscape.