Omer Arbel Monograph Carwan Gallery

Aedes - 75, 86, 91, 94

2020, Aug 28 - Oct 22

20th July 2020, Berlin Germany: Multidisciplinary artist and designer Omer Arbel will present a new solo exhibition of architectural works in progress at Aedes Architekturforum in Berlin. From 28th August until 22nd October, 2020, the show 75, 86, 91, 94 will document a series of major innovations within Arbel’s ongoing experimental practice.

The exhibition will present four architecture projects, named in the order of their creation, which are currently underway. These works demonstrate Arbel’s decade old signature process – letting the intrinsic properties of a given material suggest its form, rather than impose an external idea of form upon the material.

From left: 75, 86, 91, 94

In 75, a house, this emerges as a unique method of casting concrete into stretched fabrics, which acknowledges its intrinsic plasticity and reduces labour and waste found in typical construction. 86, a large industrial building also experiments with the liquid properties of poured concrete, this time over formwork composed of haphazardly stacked hay bales wrapped in loose fabric.

Both 91 and 94 are houses set to interact and evolve within the rugged, remote, oceanfront landscapes in which they are built. The former is a heavily sandblasted cedar bridge between two naturally occurring ridges, spanning over a sunken fern gully; it is anticipated that over the next 100 years, rising sea levels will flood the gully, giving the project an entirely different reading. The latter contrasts the character of underground spaces with the sudden discovery of being suspended over the edge of a cliff; numerous cedar offcuts are tumbled into amorphous forms and used first as formwork for concrete, second as kinetic cladding.

75

86

91

94

Each project is shown as a constellation of large scale architecture models, drawings, prototypes, videos, and sculptural applications of material explorations that have grown out of the specific conditions of each project. For those unable to visit the exhibition, a VR experience and guided journey has been created for the exhibition.

Based in Vancouver, Omer Arbel began his career as an apprentice to Catalan architect Enric Miralles before completing his professional degree in architecture in Canada and working with, among others, John and Patricia Patkau. His own practice cultivates a fluid position between the fields of architecture, sculpture, invention and design.

Arbel’s works begin from a point of materials research. Some are then developed commercially, including ambient lighting for Bocci, the Canadian Design & Manufacturing brand of which he is co-founder. Other projects sit between sculpture and industrial design; Arbel has worked on large scale installations with institutions including London’s Canada House, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Barbican Centre. In 2015 Arbel was awarded the Allied Arts Medal by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and in 2019, a World Architecture Festival Future Projects Award.

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Omer Arbel Monograph Carwan Gallery
Omer Arbel Monograph
Carwan Gallery