Set back from a cliff overlooking the water, the old barn structure consisted of two parts: a taller volume with gabled ends, and a wide addition off one side with a sloping shed-style roofline. No doors, windows, or actual roofs remained – just holes where they used to be. Aiming to keep as much of the concrete structure in place as possible to preserve its aged and weathered character, the architects decided to insert a lightweight two-story timber structure into the original volume, mimicking its shape.

Preserving the crumbling concrete required some creativity. The old barn was made of thick and stable mass concrete, but most of its walls lacked foundations, and some were very fragile. They decided to retain only the perimeter walls, leaving them in a ruined state peppered with lichen and patchwork patterns of local pebbles. They also stabilized the existing structure and lined the barn floor with a reinforced concrete raft to ensure the home wouldn’t continue to deteriorate after the renovations were complete.

New openings were created sparingly to avoid compromising the structural integrity of the old concrete shell. One was added to let more light into the kitchen, and another adds a separate entrance to the art studio so the homeowners can move large artworks in and out. Both the new openings and the original ones were diamond-cut to a smooth surface that contrasts with the roughness of the outer facade. On the ground floor, Studio Bua placed a kitchen and dining space adjacent to the studio, giving them all a floor of polished concrete.

The client, an artist, had previous experience staining plywood and wanted to experiment with adding light washes of color to the birch walls. She and the architects collaborated on a palette inspired by the colors of the meadow as they shift from green in spring to yellow in winter and purple in late summer. On the second floor, the white stained pine boards and plywood surfaces are left in their natural color to complement the darkness of the concrete and stone. A plywood staircase leads from the ground floor dining room to a mezzanine sitting room overlooking a double-height space, with both rooms taking advantage of the massive amount of daylight emanating from a fully-glazed end facade.

Outside, the walled garden might just be the coolest part of this old-meets-modern renovation. Protected from both strong winds and hungry wildlife, the garden preserves the framed views of the original windows and doors, now open to the air, and uses the remains of the original interior walls as row dividers.

The architects also chose a number of materials that are uniquely Icelandic in character. They explain that “the cladding of the new volume is corrugated Aluzinc – a reflective material that takes the color of the sky and meadow around the house, changing with the seasons and weather embodying the lightness of the inserted volume. This allowed us to extend to a second story without overpowering the concrete barn. From our experience working in harsh climates, this rather industrial material is one of the few cladding options that can withstand the extremes of weather.”

“The corrugation is also a reference to a local building tradition. From the early 20th century corrugated steel has been used diffusely in Iceland in rural and urban settings for all typologies. Most dwellings and farm buildings in the area are partly or completely clad in this material.”

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The new Turk’s Inn has been lovingly recreated by restauranteurs Varun Kataria and Tyler Erickson, Minneapolis natives who’ve been well acquainted with the popular Hayward, Wisconsin spot for some time now. When they heard it was going up for auction five years ago, it almost felt like kismet, and the two immediately bought it with the goal of “saving it.” But how could the two of them effectively save a popular establishment over 1,000 miles away? By rebuilding it in NYC, of course.

By effectively capturing the original club’s distinctive essence and transforming the intact restaurant collection into something new, yet timeless, the pair have reimagined the Inn’s historic significance, all while creating something truly special.

Kataria describes the new Turk’s Inn vibe as akin to deja-vu, an almost trippy feeling of being in the past and present at the same time. He says, “You’re meant to walk through the doors of this place and feel out of time and space. Whether you come here and know of its history, or come and think wow, I’ve never seen anything like this, yet it still feels familiar.”

That feeling certainly resonates as one enters the new eatery and finds themselves instantly enfolded in the warm embrace of its plush, eclectic decor and welcoming vibes.

Though Kataria and Erickson originally had no plan when they originally purchased the Turk’s Inn, they did know that they wanted to keep its contents together. Thus the two embarked on what was essentially a “rescue mission,” bidding on everything they could to conserve the history of this beloved Midwestern supper club.

And there is plenty of history to be had. The original Turk’s Inn was opened in the early 1930s by George “the Turk” Gogian, a Turkish-born Armenian who moved to the Midwest with a goal of living the American Dream. Immensely popular in the community, Gogian was charismatic, hardworking, and determined to establish a neighborhood supper club the likes of which were already famous in Eastern Europe and the U.K. With the help of the local townspeople, he did exactly that. Thus, Giorg’s Iron Kettle was born, which, in time, would become the Turk’s Inn.

Throughout the years, the popular supper club stayed within the family, later being taken over by Gogian’s daughter Marge, who returned home from New York to help her father run the business. Unfortunately, there was no family left to take over after Marge passed away, leaving the Turk’s Inn to an uncertain fate — until now.

The new Turk’s Inn in Bushwick lovingly embraces much of what made the original location great through a creative reimagining of the Midwest icon with a modern twist. Nostalgic pieces like Gogian’s beer steins blend perfectly with kitschy touches like shag carpeted walls and a brightly colored jewel-toned ceiling. Marge’s original drawings were also used as inspiration for the new layout and graphics, effectively mimicking the original’s supper club vibe but sprinkling in a side of fantasy and imagination.

While the “supper club” concept may be unknown to today’s trendy Bushwick crowd, locals have quickly come to embrace the restaurant/lounge as a hip destination. And that’s exactly what Kataria and Erickson had in mind after their historic purchase: for people to see and embrace the famous Turk Inn’s vibrant history, “a real place built around real lives.”

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Working with scientists at James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Jason deCaires Taylor has created a collection of figurative sculptures and other structures forming the first artificial reef ever to be installed in the waters near Australia’s famous Great Barrier Reef. “The Coral Greenhouse,” located at John Brewer Reef, opened to visitors in August 2020.

Sharing a message of reef conservation and restoration, the museum is filled with 20 “reef guardian” sculptures. They may be still and silent, but they’re actually doing the highly-important task of propagating coral. That’s right: more than 2,000 fragments from marine nurseries have been planted into the sculptures to help the site generate its own marine ecosystem. Installed just prior to coral spawning season, it’ll offer clean surfaces made of pH-neutral marine cement, to which coral larvae can easily attach.

The 60-foot-deep installation includes a 40-foot-long skeletal building that houses the sculptures, which itself is anchored securely enough to the sea floor to withstand a Category 4 cyclone. Scientists are monitoring the water salinity, pH, and oxygen levels and recording the development of coral with underwater cameras. Each of the sculptures is modeled on a member of the local indigenous community who traditionally own the land. Alongside Taylor and a team of local artists, they participated in workshops to construct and install the statues.

Adventurous visitors can book guided tours of the museum through a variety of different local dive operations, snorkeling or scuba diving right next door to one of the “Seven Wonders of the World,” to boot. These tours vary from shorter group trips to full-day excisions and are held on private chartered boats.

A second installation is a little more accessible to the average person. “” emerges from the water at the end of Townsville’s Strand Jetty, a popular tourist attraction that’s part of a 1.5-mile waterfront business district. Modeled after 12-year-old Takoda Johnson, another member of the Wulgurukaba people, the sculpture shifts in color according to the ocean’s temperature using data collected by the Davis Reef weather station.

“She looks over the land of her forefathers,” says Taylor.

The Museum of Underwater Art represents Taylors’ first time working in the Pacific Ocean. The UK-born sculptor and scuba diving instructor first gained international renown in 2006 for “Viscissitudes,” a ring of 26 children set underwater off the coast of Grenada, Spain at the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park. After that, he launched a series of underwater art museums across the globe, including Museo Atlántico near the Spanish island of Lanzarote and the M.U.S.A. Museo Subacuático de Arte in Cancun, Mexico.

Taylor, a lifelong environmentalist, hopes his work will inspire a sense of urgency around protecting our oceans and the life they contain.

“Our oceans are going through rapid change, and there are huge threats, from rising sea temperatures to acidification, and a large amount of pollution entering the system,” he told The Guardian. “Part of creating an underwater museum is about changing our value systems — thinking about the sea floor as something sacred, something that we should be protecting and not taking for granted.”

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In particular, buildings that fall under the category of modernist architecture often seem to be “too” unique. Modernism, a movement beginning in the early 20th century in response to large-scale changes in both technology and society, predominantly adopted the use of concrete, glass, and steel to streamline architecture. This resulted in the creation of countless eye-catching and one-of-a-kind buildings throughout the era, but today many of the movement’s most shining examples sit in a state of disrepair — not exactly the most appealing to potential investors.

The Getty Foundation, whose mission is to “advance and share the world’s visual art and cultural heritage for the benefit of all,” recently announced a plan to help conserve 13 of the world’s modernist monuments.

The architectural designs of the modernist era were full of experimentation with both materials and engineering.The Getty notes that these experiments “were often untested and have not always performed well over time.” Many of the buildings have been neglected or even completely abandoned, since restoration is expensive, but the Institute hopes to slow their degradation and keep them from being demolished with a total of $2.2 million in grants.

One remarkable recipient of this funding is the Buzludzha Monument, a saucer-dome of concrete found on a mountaintop in Bulgaria. Built in 1981 to commemorate the founding of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the building — along with the intricate mosaic curving through its interior — has been neglected for decades now. Hugely popular with photo tourists, the funds will protect the mosaic and support a plan to adapt the structure for future use.

The funds, collectively referred to as the “Keeping It Modern” grants, are a result of a program that has dedicated itself to preserving buildings since its inception in 2014. To date, 77 projects in 40 nations around the world have benefited from the program, with this year’s candidates hailing from places like Chile, Kuwait, Nigeria, Portugal, India, and Senegal.

“Modern architecture, with its experimental materials and structural innovations, is a powerful cultural expression that took many forms worldwide,” says Joan Weinstein, Director of the Getty Foundation. “These buildings embody human ingenuity, but many are showing their age and face irreversible damage or even demolition if we fail to act. Our Keeping It Modern grantees across the globe are working to safeguard this modern heritage for future generations, and to produce models of best practice that other stewards of modern architecture can learn from.”

The oldest building in this year’s group is the White Tower in Ekaterinburg, Russia by Moisei Reisher, which began construction in 1929. Another well-aged candidate is the Tecton Buildings at Dudley Zoo and Castle in the United Kingdom by architects Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton Group, erected in 1937. In the way of more recent projects, several buildings from the 1970s are also receiving grants, including the International Fairgrounds in Dakar, Senegal by architects Jean-François Lamoureux and Jean-Louis Marin (197), the Kuwait Towers by architect Malene Bjørn (1976), and the Oberstufen-Schulzentrum Wedding secondary school in Berlin, Germany by architects Pysall, Jensen, Stahrenberg & Partner (1976).

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“If you were to reconstruct the house, you’d cover up some of the most interesting parts,” says architectural conservator Matt Webster, a Menokin Foundation Advisory Council Member. “With glass, we can actually see how an 18th-century building comes together.”

The foundation sees this approach as “revolutionary,” connecting the past to the future in “relevant, daring ways.” The Neo-Palladian home, which stands on a 500-acre property, is one of the best-documented 18th-century houses in America. The conservationists had an original presentation drawing dating to 1769, an extensive Historic American Building Survey from 1940 including photography and 20 sheets of drawings, and a number of research reports and historic images to go off while completing the project.

About 80 percent of the mansion’s original materials have survived, including its sandstone exterior and 1,000-plus pieces of intact interior woodwork, but it did start to deteriorate a bit during the 20th century when it fell into a period of neglect. In the 1960s, a tree fell on the house, destroying half of it. The house was pretty much totally in ruins by the time the Menokin Foundation received it in 1995, at which point they covered it with a steel canopy. Their experts have spent the last 18 years developing a plan to save it and make it available to scholars, preservationists, and enthusiasts for continued learning and inspiration.

In June 2020, construction began on the new glass portion, which is expected to be completed in 2023.

The project’s official website explains that “The Glass House Project, the only initiative of its kind in the world, will preserve the remaining portions of the 1769 house and replace missing walls, floors, and sections of the roof with glass. The glass serves not merely as a protective covering for the fragile original structure, but as part of an integral whole that brings the house back to life. The use of glass as a structural element, blending seamlessly with the 18th-century stone, brick, and timber is a tour de force of design and engineering. This fusion of technology and mission embodies the Menokin Foundation’s commitment to innovation in design and historic interpretation.”

“While traditional restoration methods cover evidence of the human story that historic structures present, the transparent design of the Glass House Project emphasizes the deconstructed architectural elements of the building and provides a literal window into the lives of those who built, lived, and worked at Menokin. Fingerprints are visible in the handmade bricks, marks of hand tools are etched on the timbers, and the successes and failures of the builders are revealed.”

“Views of the surrounding landscape through the glass walls will continually connect visitors to the pristine natural environment and the traces of the tobacco plantation where generations of enslaved laborers once worked. This interplay of interior and exterior, historic past and modern-day design, allows a layered and complex look not only at the house but also the people who lived on the site over the centuries — the Rappahannock, the English settlers and the Lee family, and the people who were enslaved at Menokin.”

The preservationists see this last part as a crucial element in telling the tale of Menokin. The home’s importance lies not only in its past but in its ability to connect historical injustice with contemporary issues, telling the stories of the plantation’s enslaved laborers and the Rappahannock people, who lived on the land for centuries and gave “Menokin” its name.

Part of the project will include a new pavilion made of translucent agricultural fabric built above the archaeological footprint of an 18th-century field slave dwelling, which will glow at night in memorial to those enslaved residents who literally built and maintained the property, making it what it was and what it remains today.

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UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) recently voted to give protected status to Fallingwater, Hollyhock House in Los Angeles, The Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House, Wright’s own home and studio Taliesin in Wisconsin, Unity Temple and the Robie House in the Chicago area, the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and Taliesin West in Arizona. Even bigger, it’s the first time the UN agency has ever recognized exemplary modern architecture in the United States.

The structures chosen represent various stages in the evolution of Wright’s 70-year architectural career, from his early residential work to his designing monumental museums. On top of that, all eight projects are noted as having played prominent roles in the development of modern architecture from the first half of the 20th century until today, continuing to inspire architects and designers all over the world.

“This recognition by UNESCO is a significant way for us to reconfirm how important Frank Lloyd Wright was to the development of modern architecture around the world,” says Barbara Gordon, President and Executive Director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. “There are nearly 400 remaining structures designed by Wright. Our hope is that the inscription of these eight major works also brings awareness to the importance of preserving all of his buildings as a vital part of our artistic, cultural, and architectural heritage.”

“All communities where a Wright building stands should appreciate what they have and share in the responsibility to protect their local — and world — heritage.”

Gordon’s comments come in the wake of the demolition of the Wright-designed Lockridge Medical Clinic building in Whitefish, Montana, which was the first viable (mostly un-altered) Wright building to be torn down in 40 years. The building had been up for sale by a developer for a year, and when he couldn’t get the $1.7 million he was requesting, he chose to raze it. Several other buildings are currently under threat of demolition, including the Chicago-area Glencoe cottage.

In a recent press release, UNESCO explained why they chose these particular buildings.

“These buildings reflect the ‘organic architecture’ developed by Wright, which includes an open plan, a blurring of the boundaries between exterior and interior, and the unprecedented use of materials such as steel and concrete. Each of these buildings offers innovative solutions to the needs for housing, worship, work, or leisure. Wright’s work from this period had a strong impact on the development of modern architecture in Europe.”

Photos and maps of the chosen Frank Llloyd Wright buildings and documents of their historical significance can be viewed on the UNESCO website.

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Judging Criteria

The list of criteria the museum uses to judge buildings is as rigorous as it is diverse. Accessibility and sustainability earn top marks, as do robustness, client satisfaction, design visualization, overall improvement, originality, and the ability to stimulate, connect with, and enchant both visitors and occupants. The judges specifically acknowledged the Union Trust Building for being “academically rigorous in terms of repairs, reversibility, and in the selection of new materials.”

The Original Union Trust Building

Designed by Frederick John Osterling and commissioned by industrialist Henry Clay Frick in 1915, the Union Trust Building is a 500,000-square-foot architectural milestone located at 501 Grant Street — right in the heart of Pittsburgh’s celebrated Mellon Square. The structure’s Flemish-Gothic design has made it one of the most well-known parts of Pittsburgh’s architectural legacy.

The building is presently owned by an investment fund associated with The Davis Companies of Boston, who purchased the property in 2014 and initiated restoration plans sometime between 2015 and 2016.

Jonathan Davis, a Pittsburgh native and the CEO of The Davis Companies, remarked: “It was our goal to invite people in and bring vibrant energy back into the building and its surrounding streets and parks. It is a great honor to be recognized by the American Architecture Awards committee for turning one of city’s most historic and inspired buildings back to its turn-of-the century grandeur.”

Preservation Focal Points

The $100 million restoration aimed to preserve the building’s distinctive architectural features and remarkable charm while incorporating a few 21st-century upgrades. Among the architects’ modern tweaks are an additional 40,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space, a 5,000-square-foot high-tech fitness center, and a 190-space underground parking garage with valet service and secure, onsite bicycle storage. Elsewhere, they refurbished a 70-seat conference facility and a 400-seat auditorium. All areas of the Union Trust Building are LEED-certified and have been equipped with energy efficient Class-A retrofitting. The new decor also proudly includes 28 original Pittsburgh-inspired works of art.

Additional Accolades

The Union Trust Building has earned several other prestigious awards, including Honors in Restoration from the Society of American Registered Architects, a Gold Reconstruction Award   from Building Design + Construction magazine, the American Architecture Prize for Architectural Design/Restoration & Renovation, and a Certificate of Merit for Historic Preservation from AIA Pittsburgh.

The Union Trust Building one of just three buildings on the museum’s top 100 list that was categorized as “historically significant,” with the other two being the celebrated St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City and Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois.

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Sometimes, these buildings are in good enough condition to have their characteristic period features highlighted and combined with new elements, resulting in incarnations that are altogether new. These are often the most successful conservation and preservation projects, when old and new come together to embody both the times gone by and the now under a single roof.

This recent project by David Connor Design and Kate Darby Architects has done exactly that by preserving an old cottage within a new construction in England’s West Midlands. The collaborative team is responsible for conserving the cottage’s 18th-century timbers, which were in a severe state of decay. Instead of restoring the rotting structure, the concept behind the build was to keep everything exactly as it was and to incorporate it into a new construction.

The designers said, “The strategy was not to renovate or repair the 300-year-old listed building, but to preserve it perfectly. This would include the rotten timbers, the dead ivy, the old birds nests, the cobwebs, and the existing dust. The ruin would be protected from the elements within a new high-performance outer envelope. This means that in most places there would be two walls, two windows and two roofs, old and new.”

The new scheme sees the cottage enveloped in a gabled structure with feature fenestration (including a generous vertical window in one of the walls) and a black corrugated metal skin. The cottage now forms part of a house that also incorporated an existing stable on the land into itself, which now functions as a studio for the architects and designers.

The effect of the old cottage’s subsumption into the new home is startling in its juxtaposition of old and new. Certain period features are retained in several projects, but it’s rare to see centuries-old growth and decay worked into a brand new design. There is a beauty in the coupling of the ancient rafters and warped beams with fresh, whitewashed walls and a new steel frame, which has been carefully inserted into the cottage to support the existing one. The furnishings are minimal and straddle the boundary between antique and contemporary themselves, with wood burning stoves, simple metal framed couches and armchairs, and stainless steel kitchen units bringing flashes of modernity into the space.

This preservation project has been a personal and industry success for its designers, who have won a number of awards throughout 2017, including the RIBA West Midlands Regional Award, the West Midlands Small Project of the Year, and the Architect’s Journal Small Projects Award.

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This modern observation tower is soon-to-be part of the forest’s “Camp Adventure,” an amusement park filled with activities like zip lining and advanced indoor rock climbing. Guests will be able to get up-close views of the forest’s lakes, wetlands, creeks, cliffs, and aviaries as they traverse a series of pathways and bridges that ultimately lead to EFFEKT’s “Treetop Experience.”

To get to the tower, you’ll have to take one of two ramps. The “high” walkway gives visitors a look at the forest’s oldest and tallest trees, while the “low” walkway passes through some areas that have been lined with newly-planted saplings. You’ll also have to trek over some hilly terrain on your way to the Treetop Experience — a rarity in these parts of Denmark. There’s even a small amphitheater along the way where you can stop and have an afternoon picnic!

While designing the tower, EFFEKT asked themselves, “how can we protect a preserved forest and make it accessible at the same time?” Their answer was the Treetop Experience. “The tower is set gently and respectfully in the forest, disturbing the existing surroundings as little as possible, while creating a new unique opportunity to take a walk above the tree tops and experience the stunning nature from a new perspective,” explain the architects. “A 600 meters long tree top walkway around the forest, will be connected to the tower as a continuous experience. Both tower and walkway function as a seamless continuous ramp that will make the forest accessible for all, despite physical condition.”

The tower’s profile is almost as beautiful as the landscapes around it, which is a good thing considering its high visibility from places all around the park. Narrowing at its center and flaring out at both ends, the tower features a lattice-like open framework that supports its wooden walkways and curls upwards towards the sky. The resulting aesthetic makes the entire structure feel like a tautly-pressed spring that’s ready to launch itself, and anyone on it, into space. Once you reach the top, you’ll be able to look down at what seems like a vortex of guests making their way up the ramps.

The Treetop Experience is just a concept for now, but it’s well on its way to becoming a physical structure. As of yet, no official opening date has been announced. In January, EFFEKT revealed that they had been granted building permission and that they would release further details on the project as soon as they could. The firm’s website features several images of the tower and maps of its proposed walkway routes.

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Adaptive reuse often has to make the best of a bad situation, taking ill-shaped structures into workable residences … but in this case, the form of this 100-foot-tall Belgian water tower turned out to be the perfect basis for a brilliant seven-story house. Going … up?

Moving vertically through the home involves shifting from entry and functional spaces to living and dining areas and terminating in bedroom, shower and private relaxation zones that culminate in an extra-wide, 360-degree zone for enjoying lofted views of the sky and surrounding landscapes.

“In a small terrain of 16m width by 20m long in the middle of a flat Belgian landscape, raises a 30m high water tower built between 1938 and 1941 for and by the village of Steenokkerzeel,” say architects Bham Design Studio. “It has been in service until the beginning of the nineties and was used by the Nazis during the 2nd world war as a ‘tour de guete.'”

“In 2004 a procedure was filled to protect and preserve the building witch the Royal commission for the protection and preservation of monuments and sites accepted. The exterior of the tower was fully renovated to its initial state. Damaged concrete columns were repaired and painted, brick joints were completely removed and replaced and the windows in the floor top were enlarged. The works for a complete renovation and conversion into a single family house started in 2007.”

The first story contains a main entrance and two-car garage, below a second-story equipment, storage and HVAC zone. The third and fourth levels house guest, meeting and work spaces – the fifth features a master bedroom, with a spiral staircase that leads up to the kitchen, living and dining room areas. Finally, on the very top floor, there is a wrap-around terrace cantilevered out beyond the main structure (in the water-storage core).

Bham Design Studio had to work with local preservation efforts, building codes and the needs of clients to maintain the integrity of the building while making it a useful dwelling. Somehow it still manages to look a good fit for the farmland-filled countryside around it.

Built to last, the original water tower was constructed nearly seven decades ago. The exterior was preserved as best it could be, with the limited introduction of well-scaled windows and respect for the existing concrete and brick on all sides. The interior, for better or worse, was made more modern in style – black and white dominate, but perhaps that works well after all since it provides such compelling contrast with the colorful window-framed environments outside.

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Sometimes codes and laws help save priceless historic properties. Still, try telling that to a homeowner who wishes to remodel or expand their residence, like the folks who live in this mid-1800s timber cottage.

From the front,?Carter Williamson Architects had to leave the building largely alone per local protections in Sydney, Australia.

Viewed from the rear, however, the structure looks as different as can be – square concrete frames a series of large windows and an adjustable system of marble louvers.

Framed in between, the old home is linked to a newly-added kitchen, living and dining room on the main floor. Upstairs: a reconstructed bedroom, study and library space.

All in all, designers have to work with the hand they are dealt. On the upside, though, the front facade provides an interior surprise to guests, who never expect to step foot into such contemporary spaces upon entering the front door.

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Driving through downtown Vancouver at night, one might be tempted to call the police upon seeing this old townhouse building ablaze. ‘Fire with Fire’ is an apt enough name for this installation art piece by Isabelle Hayeur – the faux flames are meant to conjure images of destruction in this district of decay.

Despite the derelict nature of the neighborhood, there is a beauty in these old buildings being overlooked by developers who continue to tear them down in the name of progress. The Olympic events expedited their destruction like never before.

Historic preservation efforts often come too late, and amount to too little, which is what this project aims to change … by catching the eye, drawing attention to the problem before everything is wiped clean and rebuilt.

But one still has to wonder: can art go too far? It is hard to imagine there weren’t at least a few false positives when it came to the the fake fires seen on each floor of the structure – they were make realistic on purpose, but perhaps too much so.

Galleries West has an interesting perspective by Michael Harris, too; read the rest over there.

“I remember the first time I saw Isabelle Hayeur’s Fire with Fire video installation. A four story building seemingly ablaze, with projected flames filling the windows of the top three floors, best viewed from the derelict end of Vancouver’s East Hastings Street. At five p.m. each day, as dusk settled over a city overrun with Olympic boosterism, Hayeur’s work was switched on; staff waited 30 seconds between igniting the second floor projector, the third, and the fourth, to heighten the sense of inexorable consumption.”

“In a few minutes, the fire builds to a mute roar, filling 20-foot expanses of glass (backed by opaque paper for the projection to play on). The effect from street level was thrilling and, each evening, homeless folk paused alongside international media and wayward tourists to collectively indulge in Hayeur’s mediated shadenfreude (enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others).”

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