[SOUND] Architecture
is something that everyone experiences every day.
It's a ubiquitous thing, something that we know and think about.
For that reason, it's something that's very rich for exploration and for
altering people's expectations about it.
[MUSIC]
My background is primarily as a visual artist.
Snarchitecture began because there were a number of projects I was working on that
played with architecture,
and often did so in ways that required a kind of architectural skill set.
>> The kinda pieces we're making,
it's architecture running the gamut of architectural spaces and
physical, sculptural pieces that people are interacting with.
[MUSIC]
>> What we're interested in is looking at existing architecture,
architectural scale environments, and reimagining them to create new and
unexpected and memorable moments.
>> The building that we're in right now functions both
as the Snarkitecture headquarters and my studio as well.
A lot of the work that I'm producing here right now is part of a series that I've
been making where I'm taking contemporary objects and
remaking them in geological materials.
[MUSIC]
>> There's generally a very collaborative sort of environment.
Oftentimes before we've even start drawing we're just discussing.
>> I make art, which one could say has no purpose, and a lot of the things that we
make in Snarkitecture have a function or a specific purpose.
The ideas are simple and strong at the same time.
For me it's a lot about reduction, so
we're often taking things away rather than adding them.
We often will make one statement, one gesture within a space and
allow that to define it in its entirety.
>> In the case of the beach, this is a really big undertaking for
both the National Building Museum and for Snarkitecture.
This is gonna be one of our bigger installations.
>> We were presented with the idea of creating some sort
of environment, some sort of experience.
The project is in Washington, DC.
It's in the summer.
Thinking about just the summer and this idea about a place where people would like
to go and hang out, And for us, that was this idea about The Beach.
>> When people go to see The Beach at National Building Museum,
what they're gonna experience is we've taken over the whole atrium,
which is about the size of a football field.
We've created this large, abstracted beach with a 5,000 square foot shore
line which kinda empties out into an ocean of almost a million ball pit balls,
which are 3 foot deep, and it fills up a 50 foot by 50 foot space.
So really it's like wading into the ocean.
>> I was excited about building it.
I was apprehensive about the volume of everything.
When I heard about the specs of the balls coming in.
The boxes are your moving boxes, basically two foot by two foot by 30 inches tall,
and they said there's gonna be 16 of these on a pallet and you're getting 94 pallets.
All right, hold on now.
>> Material is something that we pay a lot of attention to,
whether that be an architectural material, or
bringing in material that you wouldn't expect in an architectural context.
>> I think reduction is a big part of what we're doing for abstraction.
So taking something familiar, in the case of The Beach, reducing, say,
the color palette to all white transforms it to kind of an extraordinary experience.
>> The aesthetic is very much that of Snarkitecture's.
They seem to want to just present the essence
of the structure without any distraction
[MUSIC]
>> For us I think it was more about the concept of water,
creating a more pure environment.
We're very much interested in an architecture that is inclusive of
all different types of people.
Everything that we create is done with the intention of it functioning for
a five year old and an 85 year old.
I'm looking forward to being in it myself, and I'm also looking forward to
just grabbing my son and throwing him in it and seeing his experience with it.
[MUSIC]
Seeing it now, it's really great opening day to have so many people show up.
>> I think the first person in here was a little boy who just ran straight
into the balls, no stopping.
[MUSIC]
We tried to make it feel like it was actually just this thing that landed
like a spaceship and didn't really have that much to do with it,
although we allowed the two giant columns to sit in the center of that.
It's like a little bit of the exterior museum coming down into the installation.
[MUSIC]
Different emotions that are tied to being at a beach, and
when you see this at first, it's very stark.
And I think the scale takes you away, but once you're in it,
it becomes very familiar.
[MUSIC]
>> I'm usually not deep in to art, or get it,
but this you can't help but get because you're immersed in it.
[MUSIC]
>> The interactive part is awesome,
because a lot of times you can't touch the art, things like that.
Right now, you can kind of be in the art.
[MUSIC]
>> It's funny, when we make the installation, it's this muted,
abstraction, all white beach, and then what's great is once
it starts getting filled, the people are what makes it colorful and alive.
And so it's really great to see it packed, cuz that's what becomes the architecture
itself and the materials and the people using it,
really gets highlighted on this kinda pristine beach backgrounds.
[MUSIC]
>> Just visually, I think the experience of being in it but
also watching other people in it, it's such a unique environment and
not something that you see visually anywhere.
And I think that's something that we spend a lot of time trying to create those kinds
of scenarios that are outside of the everyday.
[MUSIC]
>> There is another side to it that is like floating in the ocean.
That you can just wade and
be alone even though you're in a huge installation with hundreds of people.
[MUSIC]