A+D, The Architecture and Design Museum of Los Angeles, presents Souper Green, an exhibition of new architectural work that offers a compelling alternative to the conventional idea of “being green” starting February 12th from 6pm-9pm to April 14th.
Highlighting the fact that technology is a key factor in the environmental crisis—to some a main cause, to others the best answer—this work questions the corresponding ways “green technology” is normally cast as a form of penance, and asked to “solve the problem” (as in “please-make-it-go-away-I-don’t-want-to-hear-about-it”). Instead, these five projects promote an attitude that looks at technology as a uniquely human means of expression, through which the “natural”—in its broadest sense—can be engaged and made more visible. More event description after the break.
In contrast, Souper Green features five architectural propositions that explore the way that technology—reviled by many as the source of the environmental problem and revered by others as its potential solution—can promote and enhance a far more constructive engagement between architecture and the environment. This “souped up” approach to green architecture is achieved by leveraging the expressive potential of a meaner, greener technology in order to produce architecture that is not only environmentally responsible by quantifiable measures, but which also critically and positively promotes more expressive, exuberant, rad, boss, and totally stoked green experiences.
The SOUPERgreen exhibition features newly completed projects by Doug Jackson, Wes Jones, Aryan Omar, Steven Purvis, and Randolph Ruiz—five architects and designers who have each produced widely publicized and celebrated work renowned for its emphasis on the expressive and transformative potential of technology. Collectively this group represents a vision that is both unique and uniquely consistent within the discipline of architecture, but one that is also rich and nuanced. The work that they have produced for this exhibition capitalizes on their collective expertise, as well as their proven unwillingness to play it safe. While other architects have so far elected to only timidly engage the environmental crisis, the work in the Souper Green exhibition demonstrates the superlative approach to greenness that architecture should take, and leaves all previous efforts at green architecture in the dust.
