the beach
the national building museum/washington D.C

source: casaabril

O hall do National Building Museum,Museu Nacional da Construção, em tradução livre, localizado em Washington, DC, Estados Unidos, se transformou em uma praia, com mar de bolas translúcidas, feitas de material reciclável, cadeiras e guarda sol. Projetada pelo escritório estadunidense Snarkitecture, a instalação interativa ganhou o nome de “Praia”. “É uma oportunidade de demonstrar as inúmeras funções e possibilidades dos materiais, estimulando a exploração e interação de quem está ao redor. Além disso, oferece aos visitantes uma experiência relaxante”, explica Alex Mustonen, do Snarkitecture, em release disponível no site do Museu. O objetivo é fazer com que as pessoas se divirtam e interajam entre si, como se estivessem em uma praia de verdade. Ao todo, o espaço de 929 metros abriga cerca de um milhão de bolas e foi delimitado por painéis de madeira. Em um dos lados, há ainda uma parede com um espelho gigante, criando a sensação de espaço infinito.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: kleerfr

« The beach » n’est pas littéralement une plage. Son créateur, le studio Snarkitecture a voulu transformer le musée national d’architecture de Washington en un véritable terrain de jeu et de sociabilité en y déversant près d’un million de petites balles en plastique. Un projet étonnant qui fait le bonheur des habitants de Washington.

Imaginez près de 1.000 m2 remplis de boules en plastiques blanches, translucides et recyclables au Grand Palais. Snarkitecture, un studio basé à Brooklyn, l’a fait, mais au National Building Museum de Washington.

Le projet se nomme « The beach ». Ses créateurs, Daniel Arsham et Alex Mustonen, ont voulu créer un espace de détente, de divertissement et de sociabilité procurant les mêmes impressions qu’à la plage, mais en intérieur. Résultat, des milliers de visiteurs se pressent dans ce gigantesque terrain de jeu immaculé et se prélassent, sautent, se courent après et s’enfoncent voire « nagent » dans l’épaisse couche de boules blanches. Une expérience totalement immersive et sensorielle qui invite à explorer et redécouvrir ses sens.

Pour les plus calmes, des transats, toujours blancs, ont été installés en bordure de cette océan de plastique ainsi qu’un mini-bar pour se désaltérer ou manger un bout après avoir crapahuté dans tous les sens. Pas sûr en revanche que cette mer de plastique rafraîchisse autant que la la Méditerranée. Et puis, à Paris, il y a déjà le canal Saint-Martin qui est rempli de plastique….
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: nbmorg

The BEACH is contained within an enclosure and built out of construction materials such as scaffolding, wooden panels, and perforated mesh, all clad in stark white. Monochromatic beach chairs and umbrellas sprinkle the 50-foot wide “shoreline,” and the “ocean” culminates in a mirrored wall that creates a seemingly infinite reflected expanse. Visitors are welcome to “swim” in the ocean, or can spend an afternoon at the “shore’s” edge reading a good book, play beach-related activities such as paddleball, grab a refreshing drink at the snack bar, or dangle their feet in the ocean off the pier.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source: washingtonian

Every summer, the National Building Museum gives over its atrium to a large, interactive, stunt-y exhibit. In 2012 and 2013, it was mini-golf. Last year brought a maze designed by the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. This year’s, though, has all of them beat.

“The Beach” brings museum visitors a wading pool filled with 1 million translucent polyethelene balls and a carpeted deck inside a 10,000-square-foot enclosure parked in on the museum’s main floor. No swimsuits are needed—in fact, museum patrons can and should stay fully clothed—but this “Beach” might be the next-best thing after packing up the car, suffering through Bay Bridge traffic, and fighting for a spot to lay down a blanket on some Eastern Shore coastline.

The exhibit is the work of Snarkitecture, an experimental design firm behind other outlandish projects like “Lift,” a performance-art piece at the New Musuem in New York, and some of the public art installations at Marlins Park in Miami.

For “The Beach,” Snarkitecture acquired two shipping containers’-worth of polyethelene balls and dumped them on a slope toward the exhibit’s far side. It’s unclear how deep “The Beach” actually gets—touching the bottom is practically impossible in a sea of plastic balls.

“A lot of our work seeks to reduce things,” says Snarkitecture co-founder Alex Mustonen. “We don’t know what will happen to the balls. They can be recycled.”

Besides the installing the ball pit and the deck chairs, the Building Museum put in a snack bar operated by Union Kitchen, the culinary-development firm in Northeast DC. Refreshments include artisanal sodas, candied popcorn, chocolate bars, cold-brewed coffee, and cheese plates. The museum will also be hosting “Beach”-side events on Wednesdays that will include bar service.

Mustonen calls the installation “high-contrast, high-relief,” which in this case could apply as emotionally as it does aesthetically. This could be juvenilia masquerading as art. But at least it’s not an oversized novelty duck.