Design Matters

The AIA’s Design Award winners at Golden Belt

I gotta give some credit to Golden Belt for taking on the task of this exhibit of NC Chapter American Institute of Architects (AIA) design award winners.  Goodness knows in this economic climate that the suffering architecture biz can use all the good publicity it can get. But if you do go see the show, be prepared for a presentation long on design exuberance and individual firm expertise but lacking in overall presentation and cohesiveness.  But that’s what goes with the territory in these design award shows.  The work holds together only in that all the entries on display adhere to the same submission board format.   From there anything goes…

The group of presentation boards as a whole suffers from too much complexity and contradiction (to borrow some famed verbage  from  noted architect Robert Venturi)  which I suppose is unavoidable in a display of the work of firms whose practices are spread all across the spectrum.  These type of design award affairs are juried occasions (the jury this go-round consisting of design professionals from Austin, Texas area)  and the selection of the best of the past year’s design work in the state is of course the raison d’être for the show in the first place.   No submissions = no awards = no show.   But I always wonder when I see design shows like this whether an exhibition of such work wouldn’t benefit from maybe a little video projection (there must be some animation flyovers and walk-throughs made for clients on some of these so why not show ‘em off to the general public once in awhile?)  Or at least a few larger prints dispersed about the gallery that might set off the honor awards in a more distinguished manner?   A few of the panels nonetheless do stand out, design award or no.  Kenneth Hobgood‘s presentation of a pair of recent house designs are splendidly rendered (and utilize genuine non-digital architectural models no less!)  and Tonic Design’s Bickett Studio board is for me one of the most effective (and understated) architectural photography presentations in the show.  Their boards embrace their pared-down aesthetic while simultaneously exhibiting sincere presentation restraint.  Perhaps the understated and minimal feel to the Tonic and Hobgood presentations are what lend them a little extra appeal- as if they’re aren’t working so hard to outdo their competitors.

Times are tight of course and no one’s budget for printing and framing and all that is growing so perhaps I’m wishing for too much.  Golden Belt has done the architecture profession a favor in providing a forum for showing some design work in the first place.  But this show would benefit from a little more attention to interactivity and presentation chutzpah to both show off what the firms spend so much time pondering in the design studio and to engage the general public more effectively.  After all what is architecture but an immersive art?

The exhibition of AIA 2010 Design Award Winners is at Golden Belt’s Room 100 in Durham through September 12, 2010