VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Architecture Center Houston and AIA Houston present the AIA Houston 2011 Artist of the Year Exhibition, June 14 – July 13, 2012. Opening Reception at Architecture Center Houston Thursday, June 14, 5:30-7:00pm.

A parametric tree that emits a cloud of fog, a photobooth that captures a vortex of Activity at parties and a shipping container that soaks up the sun to produce its own power. These are a series of projects that will be exhibited and creating their own micro-climates in FORECAST by Metalab.

While we can’t control the weather or a turbulent economy that has thwarted many startups, we can make the best of it by reflecting on how an alternate path within architectural practice has generated a body of work in the genres of civic art and product design. Through collaborations with artists, product curators and solar entrepreneurs, Metalab applies an understanding of the leading edge of design and fabrication technology while working within Houston’s can-do landscape of manufacturing and industry.

Metalab was founded 5 years ago by partners Joe Meppelink and Andrew Vrana over a conversation that left off in a metal fabrication shop on Old Spanish Trail and restarted with students at the University of Houston in a new Digital Fabrication seminar in 2005.

They have since built a multidisciplinary design firm that specializes in architecture, civic art and product design and applies invention and innovation in the use of advanced 3D modeling and digital fabrication, interactive technologies, and a practicing commitment to sustainability through product design and entrepreneurship.

The exhibit is presented in partnership with artist Matthew Geller, Smilebooth LLC, Adaptive Container LLC and the University of Houston Green Building Components program (UHGBC).

Architecture Center Houston is located downtown at 315 Capitol, Suite 120 on the corner of Bagby and Capitol.