London’s Royal Academy of Arts Gets a Dramatic Temporary Addition

Prior to a major refurbishment at its impressive Burlington Gardens site, the Royal Academy of Arts in London invited several young architecture studios to submit proposals for a summer intervention for the entryway. The winning firm, Istanbul-based SO? Architecture and Ideas—founded by Sevince Bayrak and Oral Goktas in 2007—will reveal its installation, titled Unexpected Hill , on Friday, July 3.

Set against the back entryway of the RA building, which opens to a public sidewalk, with an additional display inside the landmarked structure, SO?’s geometric construction is made entirely from ceramics (the project was cosponsored by Turkishceramics, a trade organization) and offers a sprawling arrangement of interconnected triangular forms that can be occupied, climbed, or simply observed by passersby.

Responding to a brief that implored submissions to consider the notion of transforming both a material and a space, SO? chose to consider how the ceramic tile, a traditionally two-dimensional material, could be used in a three-dimensional context that fostered interaction. To further the visual element of the installation, translucent sections of the display will be illuminated in the evenings, encouraging RA visitors and mere pedestrians alike to consider the building’s glowing, temporary extension.

“We manipulated a geometrical pattern of triangles to create a 3-D form,” says Bayrak. “As an example of using geometry to convert a 2-D object into a 3-D space, the structural principles of Muqarnas helped us create a hill, the highest point of the structure, which will be a tunnel that visitors can pass through,” the designer explains, referencing an ornamentation technique often used in traditional Islamic architecture that creates intricate, symmetrical patterns in ceramic.

Through September at the Royal Academy of Arts, 6 Burlington Gardens, London; royalacademrg.uk

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