The theme for the Architecture Gallery at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2015 is ‘Inventive Landscape’, examining the relationship between architecture and landscape from a wide variety of perspectives, including natural and man-made landscapes, the future of our environment and what to do in Mars if we colonise it.
The largest and perhaps most inventive model in the gallery is “Canvey Island – Gold Mine Model”:
“This looks a bit like the set of a Bond movie; you can imagine the head of SMERCH having his office up in the top, and then he’s got his missile down this hole, trained on Buckingham Palace. This would be nice to have in an out-house, if you lived somewhere big, and then you could set your trains or your Scalextric up around it” (Harry Hill)
Projects are varied in size and type, with many drawings and models which are beautiful works of art in their own right. Airport proposals by Lord Rogers and Zaha Hadid support 21st century transportation using the naturalistic shape of a starfish as a start, but Louis Hellman’s cartoon “Energy” reminds us that the world’s energy supplies are fast running out. In contrast to the beauty of many of the works on display, Grant Smith photograph’s of Silicon Roundabout in London at night shows the gritty and chaotic reality of much of our urban environment while Victoria Watson’s model “Three Towers” reflects on the amount of technology and wiring that fill our buildings and C J Lim provides two models on the industrialisation of food production and distribution as we need to feed the growing world population.
Responding to sustainability and to the landscape are Chris Wilkinson’s proposals to reuse the gasometers at King’s Cross, another example of such reuse as Gasometer Town in Vienna, Thomas Heatherwick’s design for Maggie’s Yorkshire where the buildings nestle into green landscape and Spencer de Grey’s model of the emergency tents for extreme weather conditions. Lord Rogers provides a potential new way of living with his “Skyfarm”.
And, looking to the future, Sonila Kadillari’s’collages consider how we would reinvent the Martian landscape and harvest solar energy if ever we colonise Mars.
Sculptural objects which could be in any of the other galleries include the architectural chess set by Karl Singporewala, Adriaan Geuze’s large shell and, using 3-D printing, Andrew Grant’s “Supertrees with Orchids and Whale”.
No major architectural fireworks, but a wide variety of work, reflecting the creativity of architects and architecture and the relationship with nature and the environment today and in the future.
