ABSTRACT
The framework for the architectural exhibition usually lies on the relationship between a concept of architecture as “container” and its objectification into “content,” along with traditional juxtapositions to artistic practices such as the performing arts and spatial installations. However pertinent this framework might have been for the affirmation of the discipline’s autonomy, it also limits the discussion into a superficial glance of the symptoms of the practice and its representation, instead of drawing from a broader and more complex debate on the potentialities regarding experimentation, mediation and emotional engagement in architecture exhibitions.
Focusing on examples that emphasise the object itself, this paper explores the relevance and the potentialities of one-to-one scale installation in the exhibition context, investigating its roots in fantasised architectures and stating its contemporary role in fostering creativity and exploration within Architecture. Ephemeral architectural installations facilitate the overlap of disciplinary boundaries and, additionally, enables other levels of effectiveness regarding public engagement. On the other hand, eluding function and reason unblock a free way to imagination and experimentation, there is to say, to creative freedom.
Building one-to-one scale, for the extent of this paper, is based on the idea of unmediated experience, excluding other ways of representing architecture besides the spatial experience.
