Aperiodic City is an urban accumulation organized around self-similar proto-blocks. It is at once like all cities in that it is made up of building forms that vary only slightly across an expansive field. But like no other city, it is also based on a system rather than a meta-plan. It is an idea that is neither emergent nor parametric but simply vaguely repetitious, incredibly persistent, and appearing in more than one form (proto-block). It is an idea city and a city of ideas.

A number of buildings designed over the last seven years have been displaced from their original context as a life-enhancing act, given that their material lives never began. Designed for specific contexts in various cities, they now occupy peculiar voids in Aperiodic City. In this new context, these buildings take on new meanings, yet they retain all the attributes of their original locations. But the location is not strictly limited to place, it also includes time, and in this, they are all imbued with ideas that are located on an endless curve that strangely oscillates through architecture and urban culture.

–Neil Denari, 2017

In a world of fake news and alternative facts, one might think twice about prospecting in fictions, but fictions let architects say what they want to say. They allow us to get to the moral of the story without being too weighed down by the heavy mantle of fact or footnote. They permit us to provoke architecture, using stories that surpass current reality to illuminate future opportunities.

–Sarah Whiting, 2017

BIOGRAPHY

Neil Denari (b. 1957, Texas) is principal of Neil M. Denari Architects Inc. and Interim Chair of the AUD at UCLA. In 2015, he was elected to The College of Fellows of AIA. Among his many awards is the Los Angeles AIA Gold Medal, received in 2011. His work has been included in many exhibitions, including the solo show “The Artless Drawing” in 2010 at Ace Gallery LA and the 2013 group show New Sculpturalism at MOCA Los Angeles. His work is permanently held by eight major museums around the world.

BANVARD GALLERY, OHIO STATE KNOWLTON SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

August 23 – October 10, 2017

The Steven Myron Holl Foundation is pleased to send  the exhibition Neil Denari: Displaced Buildings in Aperiodic City on a tour of the United States, beginning at the Ohio State University’s Banvard Gallery, in Columbus, OH.

11 inkjet prints, decades of original sketches and a Denari-designed 16 foot table were all reimagined for Banvard by the architect, and overseen by curator Sandhya Kohrer.  Displaced Buildings will be on display August 23 through October 6 at the Banvard Gallery, with an opening reception August 30.

With the support of AIA Cleveland and Kent State University, the show will then travel to 1Point618 Gallery in Cleveland, where it will be on view from November 1 through January 1.  During this time Denari will also visit Kent State as a guest lecturer.

The Steven Myron Holl Foundation has enjoyed great success with its former travelling exhibition, José Oubrerie’s Chapel of the Mosquitoes, which continues to tour galleries in the US, and will be featured at Museum-Hotel in the coming months.

1POINT618 GALLERY, CLEVELAND OH

November 2017 – January, 2018

The Steven Myron Holl Foundation was happy to collaborate with AIA Cleveland, 1Point618 Gallery, and Kent State School of Architecture to bring Displaced Buildings in Aperiodic City to Cleveland, OH.  

The show was both an arts exhibition for the city of Cleveland, and an educational opportunity for local architecture students.  Neil Denari gave a lecture and visited architecture studios at Kent State’s School of Architecture, and was honored at an AIA Luncheon with 1Point618 Director Robert Maschke.