Stone Poems: Architecture and the Land at I-space Gallery, Chicago

Featuring the work of James P. Warfield, ACSA Distinguished Professor in Architecture, Emeritus

March 5 - 27, 2004

Opening Reception: Friday, March 5, 6:00 - 8:00pm

I-Space Gallery
230 W. Superior, second floor
Chicago, Illinois
(312) 587-9976

Overview

"Architecture is form placed between the ground and the sky."
—Eero Saarinen

No design aspect of architecture is more fundamental than how a building meets the ground—the relationship the builder establishes between architecture and the land. Building is intrinsically a disruptive act, an incursion which strips the vegetation, ravages the earth surface, redefines contours, and modifies the natural surroundings to fit people's needs. Nature is irrevocably modified and man's will is imposed. Land is changed forever. Yet through this act, culture is established
and a step in history is taken. Humankind claims the land as its own and "civilization" follows.
What was once a natural setting becomes a canvas for the built environment—shelters, farmlands, buildings, villages, towns and cities—physical manifestations which reflect the needs and values
of the people who created them. These cultural values include not only social, political and religious tenets, but also attitudes toward art, beauty and aesthetics—and, ironically, values concerning land and nature as well. And so it is that, from the inevitable act of destroying nature, nearly every culture develops artists and poets and architects who seek to build on the land and re-establish a harmony with nature.

Stone Poems explores and celebrates worldwide architectural works which exemplify the very best in culture/nature, architecture/land relationships. It illustrates issues of design with nature, of sustainability, of integrity in architecture, and of materiality and time. The original images are selected from a personal archive of vernacular and historic architecture for their ability to illustrate
how some cultures around the world have, through time, established principles of design that honor nature, how some cultures have found a balance between what they take from the land and what they return to it. The images are provocative visuals intended to stimulate thought among the educated public as well as to challenge process and product among today's design professionals.

Exhibit produced by: Professor Kurt Baumgartner with Miranda Callahan, Huang Jie and Greg Schaff

Support provided by: the College of Fine and Applied Arts, UIUC Cultural Heritage Landscape Group and the Alan K. and Leonarda F. Laing Endowment