Event3

Hammer Museum: Provocation

Before I even entered the exhibition room of “Provocation” at Hammer Museum, I have already had interaction with its design products. On the first floor of Hammer Museum, there were some purple spinning chairs that people could try on. People on the chair seemed to have so much fun and I decided to give it a try as well. As opposed to its appearance, the chairs were actually very comfortable and fair. One could spin to whichever direction one wanted to and the chair would never fall. 

Me on the Spun Chair

As soon as I entered the exhibition room, I saw something very familiar. Having been to EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, China, I have seen the design of Seed Cathedral in the UK pavilion. Sitting in the center of the UK Pavilion’s site, Seed Cathedral was formed by numerous slender transparent fibre optic rods. Drawing sunlight in the daytime and glowing at night, each optic rod encases some seeds at its tip. Established by Thomas Heatherwick in 1994, Heatherwick Studio has a team of 160, devoted to the design of architecture, urban infrastructure, and sculpture. The key feature of the exhibition "Provocation" was that every piece was brought up by trying to solve a problem. 

 Seed Cathedral

Another design that caught my eyes was the Learning Hub project in Singapore. The project started by the question "Can a building help change the way we learn?” Attempting to enhance the interaction between people, the team made the shape of the building into a square instead of the traditional square or rectangle. The design reminded me of the "Changing Educational Paradigms”video that we watched the first week of the class, which discussed the lack of divergent thinking in our education system. Encouraging collaboration, the design can actually promote coloration between students. 

Learning Hub

At the end of the exhibition, I encountered the “Spun Chair” again. The question of "Can a rotationally symmetrical form make a comfortable chair?” has been perfectly answered by the design itself! I would totally recommend the exhibition to everyone in the class. Perfectly combining the most advanced technology and artistic design together, Heatherwick Studio has made great achievement in architectures that are both beautiful and beneficial for its users.