Running from July 24 to September 13, 2009, this exhibition at the SCI-Arc Library Gallery in Los Angeles features works by Hitoshi Abe, Peter Cook, Zaha Hadid, Thom Mayne, and Eric Owen Moss juxtaposed with those by R.M. Schindler and Richard Neutra that investigate the architecture of both Los Angeles and Vienna and their respective influences on one another over the last century.
During the intellectual migration from Europe that occurred within the first half of the 20th century, Los Angeles became host to many who would subsequently be recognized as influential philosophers, composers, architects, and thought leaders. In particular, the Viennese architects R.M. Schindler and Richard Neutra settled in Los Angeles in the 1920s and have had a great impact on the city and its architecture.
The exhibition begins with a digital presentation of photographs and drawings, offering a brief overview tracing the architectural link between the cities when Vienna-born architects R.M. Schindler and Richard Neutra first settled in Los Angeles. The overview highlights their respective architectural innovations, while exploring the questions: What do architects from Vienna bring to Los Angeles (and vice-versa), and conversely, how does Los Angeles influence their work?
L.A. in Wien/Wien in L.A continues with an in-depth study of five invited entries from the competition held in fall 2008 by the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Seminal L.A.-based and international architects – Zaha Hadid Architects (Hamburg, Germany/London), Atelier Hitoshi Abe (Sendai, Japan/Los Angeles), Eric Owen Moss Architects (Los Angeles), Thom Mayne/Morphosis Architects (New York/Los Angeles) and Peter Cook, Archigram/CRABstudio Architects (London) – offered their solutions to integrate campus and urban life in Vienna, while also complementing the given Master Plan designed by BUSarchitektur. Through drawings and renderings, the exhibition presents each architect’s detailed approach to infrastructure and urban planning
At 5:00pm on Wednesday, August 5, Anthony Vidler, Dean and Professor of the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union, will lecture about Schindler/Neutra in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall. At 6:30pm, the lecture is followed by the “On the Couch” symposium on the Vienna University of Economics and Business Competition with architects Hitoshi Abe, Peter Cook, Thom Mayne, Eric Owen Moss, Peter Noever and Wolf Prix, moderated by Anthony Vidler.
On the Couch imagines Los Angeles as a psychiatric patient. If it were possible to assign the city a
single persona, and if it were possible to put that persona on the couch, then conceivably, L.A. is a
persona in conflict. Should the city subscribe to an external model of what the city should be, or should the city apply its demonstrable inventive capacity in conjunction with the idiosyncrasies of this urban circumstance to imagine the city uniquely, and broadcast that conceptual message, as opposed to retrieving what originated elsewhere and attempting to implement that? (Eric Owen Moss, Who Says What Architecture Is? 2007)
Admission is free. Seating is first come, first served. For more information, please visit www.sciarc.edu.