Selected Images

Click on an image below to learn more.

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  MoMA PS1 Young Architect Program winning design (2010)
  MoMA PS1 Young Architect Program winning design (2010)

  In this winning design for the MoMA PS1 Young Architect Program (2010), SO – IL designed a temporary participatory environment in which the structure of nets and poles is directly affected by human interaction and weather conditions. The goal was to create a spatial situation that could move along a continuum between restful and playful, depending on one’s mood.

  Photograph by Iwan Baan

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  Dancers interact with the installation at MoMA PS1
  Dancers interact with the installation at MoMA PS1

  The concept of openness—for use and interpretation—is a quality SO – IL explored here, which can also be seen in its more permanent projects such as the Manetti Shrem Museum at the University of California at Davis.

  Photograph by Iwan Baan

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  Spiky, Olympic Park, Beijing
  Spiky, Olympic Park, Beijing

  Activating public space in Beijing’s Olympic Park, Spiky is an architectural installation composed of a conic metal mesh canopy—produced after material research into a standard industrial product—suspended on steel poles. SO – IL turned metal mesh, which is conventionally understood as a two-dimensional sheet, into a three-dimensional sculptural form.

  Photograph courtesy of SO – IL

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  Spiky, Olympic Park, Beijing
  Spiky, Olympic Park, Beijing

  The goal for this installation was for the urban user of public space to think about their place in the world through the contrasting perspectives of solidity and porosity experienced within the structure.

  Photograph courtesy of SO – IL

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  The Manetti Shrem Museum, University of California at Davis
  The Manetti Shrem Museum, University of California at Davis

  Responding to the legacy of the creation of avant-garde art at the University of California at Davis, SO – IL designed a model for future museums—a building that is open, permeable, and adaptable to evolving public events.

  Photograph by Iwan Baan

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  Canopy of the Manetti Shrem Museum, University of California at Davis
  Canopy of the Manetti Shrem Museum, University of California at Davis

  The unique canopy, constructed of an aluminum patchwork, draws visitors into a space that celebrates diversity, transparency, and public activation. SO – IL created a public plaza that plays with light and shadow and links a civic site with an institution.

  Photograph by Iwan Baan

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About Murmuration

For the High Museum of Art, SO – IL has designed the temporary installation Murmuration. Responding directly to the architecture of the Renzo Piano–designed Piazza, the structure also reacts to the city of Atlanta and its relationship with the natural world using the lens of bird migrations. Featuring a foliage-filled mesh canopy suspended over the Piazza by a steel framework, the installation will envelop guests, evoking tree canopies found throughout the city and region.

The canopy structure itself was developed with Atlanta-based engineers Uzun & Case and consists of a constellation of metal frames suspended from six poles and wrapped in agricultural netting, giving the installation its distinct shape. The sculptural arrangement aims to evoke the form of a bird murmuration, a flock of birds momentarily suspended in midair. Murmuration was designed to encourage conversations around biodiversity, extinction, and cohabitation.

 

 

Selected Images

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  Concept sketch for Murmuration
  Concept sketch for Murmuration

  In this concept sketch for the project, the contours of Renzo Piano’s architecture are visible as the backdrop for SO – IL’s ideation of the idea of Murmuration. The flocking behavior of the birds in flight is suggested above the colorful canopy.

  Photograph courtesy of SO – IL

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  Canopy concept sketch
  Canopy concept sketch

  This sketch explores canopies of different shapes and scales alongside a pool below, which recalls earlier SO – IL projects but also expands upon them within this new context.

  Photograph courtesy of SO – IL

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  SO – IL’s canopy design
  SO – IL’s canopy design

  The innovative structure consists of a series of interconnected steel frames suspended from six poles and covered by an agricultural net.

  Photograph courtesy of SO – IL

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  Canopy structure construction
  Canopy structure construction

  The structure was fabricated and fully erected in Mexico before being shipped to Atlanta. As such, the installation can be deinstalled and reinstalled in future locations—and hopefully create its own migratory path.

  Fabrication by Factor Eficiencia; Photograph by Jaime Navarro