Output details

Imaginary Architectures

Imaginary Architectures is a series of objects intended to make viewers question how they imagine, engage with and understand the environment, especially cities and industrial settings. The objects themselves are elaborate structures made from glass. Beginning with research into methods developed for manufacturing chemical laboratory glassware and then pushing these by making them with Venetian glass blowing masters, their final design and construction was the product of both theoretical and practical effort.

The aim was to use these glassmaking techniques to create objects that make the viewer reconsider familiar settings such as buildings, and less ordinary ones such as a mineshaft or a supercollider. The idea encapsulates Hurtado's view that design is inherent in our environment, and not concerned merely with the shape of specific objects within it. So the objects exist to change the way we see design and, in turn, to extend the design discipline.

Part of this challenge involved the addition of a film to the objects of Imaginary Architectures. Presenting the subject in a different format invites the viewer to experience the same objects in a completely new way. This is itself a research-based output on cultural design, again intended to extend the boundaries of the way in which we see our environment.

The film is shown on a large screen, encouraging us to relate to the subject matter as architecture rather than as objects, and to question our perception of the way design and architecture are presented to us. An example is the use of computer generated images in the design press, where we are constantly shown 3D renderings as real objects. The film has an intentional digital look, making the objects look computer generated, so a closer look is required to spot the imperfections of the real material as opposed to the 3D-rendered perfection.