Experimenting with the Nature of Performing Art: Buffer Space

Commissioned by the FRAGMENTAL MUSEUM to envision an urban outdoor structure/installation experimenting with the nature of performing art spaces, OFF and EXYZT designed BUFFER SPACE - a large-scale empty room with only the sky as its roof and a technically efficient wire frame scaffolding envelope, which integrates lighting and audio/video systems that sense and respond to the public.

Designer: OFF Architecture associated to EXYST and FAGMENTAL MUSEUM
Occasion: commissioned
Team: Manal Rachdi, Tanguy Vermet.
Expected completion: 2010
Location: New york, Usa
Website: www.fragmentalmuseum.net

Buffer Space questions a major programmatic and museological dilemma: that places like Madison Square Garden, a.k.a. "the World's Most Famous Arena" attract a broader audience, and are more coercive in terms of the general public they draw in. By hosting dog shows, sporting events, political party conventions and pop concerts they have a stronger emotional impact compared than exhibitions and events at the MET or the MoMA. Not to mention "postponed" Guggenheims & Louvres around the world or the Parish Museum extension by Herztog & de Meuron that are being redesigned with a drastically reduced budget (15 million USD instead of 80 million USD).

Investigating the risk of a museum without permanent location or collection and probably even without any conventional cultural program, the Buffer space implements the Fragmental Museum's call to consider existing fragments of space, time and culture by nesting an urban public space that uses anonymous architectural vocabulary inspired by fire stairs, multi-level car park structures and construction scaffolding, all of which are symptomatic of New York and its density.

Rooted in the "cabinet of curiosities" tradition, in terms of location and usage, this mobile and modular large scale set/stage design takes an economical and adaptable approach for maximum flexibility. The proposed initial installment site selected is the parking of the Clemente Soto Velez Center, a cultural & educational institution located in a generous late 19th century public school building, currently undergoing major renovation and in great need of a space to reconnect to its neighborhood: the multicultural Lower East Side.

As foreclosed real estate properties multiply and the virtualization of digital media content continues, this a-programmatic and open source performing art space is probably a new kind of public space that is open to cultural interaction by bringing back the prestige of the city to its citizen and welcoming artist and activist of all kinds for public projects.

"We are the world..." and therefore you are all welcome even if its just to desaturate from the city fast pace and branded environments to enjoy a relaxing cold beer in this very spacious little rear yard. At night, the Buffer Space becomes unmistakably the heart that New Yorker needed...

About OFF Architecure

OFF-Architecture-Profile Tanguy Vermet & Manal Rachdi

OFF is a young architecture firm with two principals, Tanguy Vermet and Manal Rachdi. Established in 2004, OFF Architecture, has been prominent in many competitions around the world. Since year 2007, OFF has been focusing on defining its status as an independent architectural practice.

Methodology

The study of an architectural project is the studied synthesis of a given project's various constraints throughout the conceptual and design phases continuing on to its formalisation. This path is constituted by either the application of referential similar studies, or the creation of new and unique solutions to the project's constraints. The question of the articulation of an architectural project is directly related to the ingestion of the large amounts of information relevant to a given situation. To know where to find this information then becomes a question of intuition. The ability to assimilate all the relevant factors relating to a project, at varying degrees of proximity, is the challenge.

The question of the architectural project isn't therefore put before any technical considerations but it is important to understand all the factors by which it is surrounded. These include the position of the owners, architects, consultants, urban planners, engineers, economists, future users, as well as, of all the material of construction: site, neighbourhood, history, geometry, geology, sociology, ethnology, phenomenology, poetry, time etc...The synthesis isn't just an accumulation of the various parts, but rather their relationship in a manner which is more or less conscientious and intuitive. Our team does not consider architecture as an isolated action but rather as an addition of skills and an exchange or knowledge. We privilege a method of associative conception with the intention of responding with the greatest relevance and professionalism as our backer.