David Chipperfield Architects: Two Lines

Size + Matter is one of the London Design Festival’s cornerstones, pairing a leading designer or architect with a material or manufacturing process. We ask them to explore the dynamic between their own creativity and the material or process. As a result, since 2007, three million people have experienced this series of remarkable explorations – by David Adjaye, Shigeru Ban, Paul Cocksedge, Zaha Hadid, Amanda Levete and Marc Newson – at the Southbank Centre.

This year they are joined by one of the UK’s most important architecture practices, David Chipperfield Architects, who teamed up with structural engineers and glass specialists from Arup to create a composition using Sefar Architecture Vision fabric. The metal-coated fabric mesh, black on one side and metallic on the other, is layered between two sheets of glass and gives the installation's panels both translucent and reflective qualities.

David Chipperfield Architects has created a sculptural dialogue between two identical forms, different only in their orientation and aluminium and copper finishes. Each form consists of a series of unframed laminated glass panels with corresponding coloured stainless steel connections. Two Lines oscillates between a sculptural relationship of two orthogonal forms and a regular series of simple vertical elements. The interlayer of 50% mesh gives a stronger materiality to the glass, appearing at times monolithic and dynamically translucent, changing over the course of a day. As a result, the installation creates a variety of different experiences as visitors move within and around it.

The Two Lines installation takes place during a high-profile year for David Chipperfield Architects, which has seen the completion of two highly lauded UK art galleries, Turner Contemporary in Margate and The Hepworth Wakefield. The 2007 Stirling Prize winner has also been awarded the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture/Mies van der Rohe Award 2011and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 2011.

Two Lines is a Size+Matter commission for the London Design Festival

Size+Matter is supported by the Southbank Centre

Two Lines by David Chipperfield Artichtects is supported by:
Arup
Sefar

Bellapart, BGT, Dupont SentryGlas, Glas Trösch , John Morgan studio, Keltbray, Pohl, Zumtobel