Building Interest Architectural Exhibit Shows Wonders Of ‘Found Potential’
Three decades ago, Canadian educator Marshall McLuhan gave us the phrase “global village” to describe how technology is moving us toward a worldwide culture.
Now from a pair of Canadian architects comes another phrase - “found potential” - to describe what makes specific cultures and locales unique, and why architects have an obligation to maximize those idiosyncrasies.
“Many buildings are uniform wherever they are found,” explains John Patkau, who, together with his wife, Patricia, heads the 10-member Vancouver, British Columbia, firm of Patkau Architects. “McDonald’s (restaurants) look the same in California as they do in Montana as they do in Toronto. Those buildings don’t exploit found potential.”
The problem, says Patkau, is that too often the spread of global culture comes at the expense of local culture.
“What we try to do is emphasize and reinforce characteristics unique to a particular project - its identity and culture - to counterbalance the overwhelming global culture we’ve come to live in.”
An exhibition of models, drawings and photographs of Patkau projects are on display in Spokane City Hall’s Chase Gallery through March 29. John Patkau will discuss the firm’s philosophy and specific projects during a free public walk-through at 6 p.m. Friday.
Among the exhibition elements is an 8-foot-long model of Seabird School, a combination classroom-office-gym-community center designed for the Seabird Island Band. Created partly as a guide for tribal members participating in the building’s construction, the wonderfully detailed model accurately depicts every timber element used in framing the 23,500-square-foot structure.
The Seabird School, like most of the projects represented in the exhibition, won several major awards.
The Patkau show began its international tour in New York more than a year ago and concludes in May at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. A Spokane stop was added thanks to the efforts of local architect Glenn Davis and the Contemporary Arts Alliance.
“An exhibition like this gives people a new way of thinking about buildings,” says Davis. “What Patkau does is different than what you see being built around Spokane.”
Different, yet still accessible to the general public.
“My hope,” says Patkau, “is that through this exhibition people will begin to understand the diversity of technical and cultural concerns that goes into making a successful building.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: EXHIBIT An exhibition of models, drawings and photographs of Patkau Architects projects will be on display in Spokane City Hall’s Chase Gallery through March 29. John Patkau will talk during a free public walk-through at 6 p.m. Friday.