Spring 2022 School of Architecture exhibitions

The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art presents two exhibitions in April 2022 that celebrate the work of faculty and alumni, and their contributions to civic space both through proposed architecture designs and one recently realized work, the Taipei Music Center.

Conceiving the Plan: Nuance and Intimacy in the Construction of Civic Space, curated by Yael Hameiri Sainsaux AR’10 and first exhibited as part of the Italian Pavilion of the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale—inaugurates a dialogue with the legacy of the late architect and longtime Cooper Union Professor Diane Lewis AR’76. Composed of a series of post-2020 civic architecture projects for different sites, Conceiving the Plan, which runs April 7 through April 29 in the Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery, asks: How can civic spaces be imbued with nuance? In what ways does such a quality persist in the city? Can one discuss intimacy in architectural terms?

For Diane Lewis, the city was not only the result of a great number of inextricable historical strata of form and memory, it was also a proposition about a moral and ethical life together. She approached the city as a mental universe all its own, greater than the sum of its individual architectures. For this exhibition, architects, former students, colleagues, and friends have generated comprehensive projects for civic space engaging Lewis’ pedagogy, carrying her legacy into contemporary dialogues. They touch on critical questions—literary, ecological, social, and metahistorical—providing and provoking spatial civic identities. Thus, they are also inseparable from deeply involved critical approaches to architectural pedagogy.

Lyrical Urbanism: The Taipei Music Center, open April 7 through April 29 in the 3rd Floor Hallway Gallery and Lobby, celebrates and communicates the vibrant energy and intensity of the recently completed Taipei Music Center that was designed by architects and Cooper alumni Jesse Reiser AR’81 and Nanako Umemoto AR’83. The exhibition introduces the complex’s iconic architecture to an American audience through large-scale photographs, videos, music, and architectural models and drawings. Lyrical Urbanism illustrates the many ways the Music Center is currently inhabited—from informal daytime outdoor markets to organized evening-time music festivals—and how it has become an important urban district where Taiwanese music and culture is cultivated, celebrated, and projected toward a global audience.

Following is a complete exhibition schedule and related programs; please sign up for The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture newsletter for complete registration details. All activities are free and open to the public.

Conceiving the Plan: Nuance and Intimacy in the Construction of Civic Space
Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery: Thursday, April 7–Friday, April 29
Exhibition hours: Tuesday–Friday 2–7pm, Saturday and Sunday 12–7pm
Opening reception: Thursday, April 7–6:30pm

Gallery Roundtable—Nuance and Intimacy in Civic Space: Saturday, April 9, 10am–3pm

Lyrical Urbanism: The Taipei Music Center
Third Floor Hallway Gallery and Lobby: April 7–29, 2022
Exhibition hours: Friday, April 15 and 22, 2–7pm / Saturday, April 23, 12–6pm / Sunday, April 17 and Sunday, April 24, 12–6pm

Lyrical Urbanism Lecture, Panel, and Music Performance: Wednesday, April 6, 6:30pm, The Cooper Union Great Hall
Panelists include architects Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto, New York Times music critic Joshua Barone, Luaka Bop Records president Yale Evelev, architectural historian and theorist Sylvia Lavin, architectural theorist and critic Jeffrey Kipnis, and Taipei Music Center spokesperson Sandra Hsu. The panel will be moderated by Dean Nader Tehrani.

A musical performance arranged by Juliana Shuo-An Chen will feature all-time favorite songs from Taiwanese and Mandarin Pop dating from the early 20th century Japanese colonial period to the present. Reconceptualized into two medley repertoires for string quartet and piano, the performance celebrates the general ambitions of the Taipei Music Center—to cultivate Taiwanese music for a global audience. Musicians include Audrey Chen, Gabrielle Chou, Peiwen Liao, and Christine Wu.

The exhibition is supported by the Taipei Music Center and the Taipei Cultural Center in New York, and was made possible through a generous donation from the Taiwan Ministry of Culture and Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown.