Character
Metropolis Magazine|September 2017

Architecture can be funny, eliciting a laugh or a smirk. It can have a backstory. It can be a in an urban drama.

But how far do you push it?

Samuel Medina
Character

Laurel Consuelo Broughton designs and makes handbags in the shape of cartoonish archetypes. Among her popular wares are a cocktail purse made to look like a slab of toast, a teardrop wristlet, and a strawberry clutch. But in a reverse translation of the pillbox hat, she also designs buildings that draw on this same Pop menagerie. Monumental toothbrushes, top hats the size of a city block, and cloud-scraping cordless phones— she equally delights in the Brobdingnagian.

You may think “novelty architecture,” or even of Robert Venturi’s polemical use of the “Long Island duck,” but Broughton, who lives in L.A. and teaches at USC, resists both. Her interest, she says, lies in “playing with misreading the object as it gets scaled up or down.” The idea that a building can be read—or misread—is one she shares with several other young architects whose work could be said to be in a neo-Postmodernist vein.

Paul Andersen also works in this register. Based in Denver, he and collaborator Paul Preissner were approached about building a pavilion in Millennium Park timed to the first Chicago Architecture Biennial two years ago. Called Summer Vault, the sky-blue structure was a simple rhombus topped with a vault, yet an angled interior wall complicated things. In plan, the design was straightforward, without any geometric distortions, but the built object was difficult to make sense of. “There was no ideal view of it. It was enigmatic in that way,” Andersen says. (The project was designed with a vendor in mind, but none were forthcoming; the lack of an obvious use surely contributed to the folly’s perplexing appearance.)

Esta historia es de la edición September 2017 de Metropolis Magazine.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición September 2017 de Metropolis Magazine.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE METROPOLIS MAGAZINEVer todo
No New Buildings
Metropolis Magazine

No New Buildings

The energy already embodied in the built environment is a precious unnatural resource. It’s time to start treating it like one.

time-read
7 minutos  |
November/December 2019
The Circular Office
Metropolis Magazine

The Circular Office

Major manufacturers are exploring every avenue to close the loop on workplace furniture.

time-read
1 min  |
November/December 2019
Signs of Life
Metropolis Magazine

Signs of Life

Designers, curators, and entrepreneurs are scrambling to make sense of motherhood in a culture that’s often hostile to it.

time-read
7 minutos  |
November/December 2019
Interspecies Ethic
Metropolis Magazine

Interspecies Ethic

In probing the relationship between humans and nature, two major exhibitions question the very foundations of design practice.

time-read
6 minutos  |
November/December 2019
Building on Brand
Metropolis Magazine

Building on Brand

The Bauhaus turned 100 this year, and a crop of museum buildings sprang up for the celebration.

time-read
8 minutos  |
November/December 2019
Building for Tomorrow, Today
Metropolis Magazine

Building for Tomorrow, Today

Radical change in the building industry is desperately needed. And it cannot happen without the building trades.

time-read
6 minutos  |
November/December 2019
Strength from Within
Metropolis Magazine

Strength from Within

Maggie’s Centres, the service-focused cancer support network, eschews clinical design to arm patients in their fight for life.

time-read
5 minutos  |
October 2019
Next-Level Living
Metropolis Magazine

Next-Level Living

The availability of attractive, hospitality-grade products on the market means everyday consumers can live the high life at home.

time-read
1 min  |
October 2019
Mi Casa, Su Casa
Metropolis Magazine

Mi Casa, Su Casa

Casa Perfect creates a memorable shopping experience in lavish private homes.

time-read
1 min  |
October 2019
Enter The Culinarium
Metropolis Magazine

Enter The Culinarium

AvroKO imagines the future of residential amenities—where convenience, comfort, and sustainability meet.

time-read
5 minutos  |
October 2019