Pavilion of Americanization
Urban Enactment - Commodities and Activities
“Urban Enactments” is a term to describe something trans-urban or trans-city.
To apply the term, I observed the New York City and found a fascinating place as a new-comer: the Spencer’s. The place is an intersection of Globalization and Americanization. While commodities of the
store evoke nostalgia of adults and curiosity from teenagers of natives, they arouse exoticism of visitors who are unfamiliar with American culture. I exaggerated and showed this contradiction of relationship by architectural installation.
Site : Retail Shop in Manhattan, New York, USA
Program : Public Facilities, Retail, Gallery, Bar, etc
Lead Designer : Shin Hea Kim
Advisor : Andres Jaque (GSAPP, Columbia University)
Urban Enactment
Andres Jaque:
What happens to architectural practices when common notions of the urban (as something confined in CITIES) are replaced by notions that the urban is contained in URBAN ENACTMENTS (ordinary interactions in which politics are produced)?
URBAN ENACTMENTS are TRANS-SCALAR and TRANSMEDIA constructions. They mobilize objects, technologies, beings, buildings, and environments. They make constellations of heterogeneous entities that gain continuity (as a contingent urbanism) as they perform together as the components of a shared situation.
Big-scale Replicas
Items, observed in the Spencer’s giftshop in NYC, became large-scale replicas to play in it. Items were selected based on academic researches, and blended a witty and satirical approach, resized for specific architectural programs, and constructed together on tectonic structure. The collection represents the everyday common-ness but imported from other countries, which is an unique characteristic in contemporary global culture.
These colossal objects from mundane the giftshop and bizarre activities in them shows celebrations of both the Globalization and the Americanization.