ReActor house: an exchange between spaces and bodies for OMI
ReActor house for OMI is a study of the complex exchanges between our spaces and our selves, taking the form of a modernist-style residence lifted atop a 15-ft concrete column – allowing for its rotation in response to the wind and its inhabitants’ movements inside
Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley’s latest project for OMI International Arts Center in Ghent, NY is a study of the complex exchanges between our spaces and our selves.
Part of the duo’s ongoing investigation of 'social relationship architecture', ReActor is a modernist-style residence lifted atop a 15 ft (4.6m) concrete column where it rotates in response to the wind and its inhabitants’ movements inside.
Schweder and Shelley designed and built the 44ft x 8ft (13.4m x 2.4m) structure – fully-equipped with a working kitchen and running water – and moved in for a five-day performance in July. Their regular routines inevitably broke down as the artists sought a new sense of comfort. Each move had to be considered and coordinated to keep the house from tilting, and in the process an intimate choreography developed between the artists, the house and the environment. 'It takes only the slightest breeze to set us in motion,' wrote Shelley in a diary recounting their experience to the New York Times. 'It feels grand and processional. Always something to look at, always a new adjustment needed to stay in the shade.'
The experimental sculpture will be on display for the next two years and Schweder and Shelley will return as residents on September 24–25 and October 6–10, to further contemplate their spinning domesticity. If any problems should arise, the two could just retreat to their individual balconies at each end of the structure. Poetically, this arrangement is also the ideal one for keeping the structure in balance.
Each move has to be considered and coordinated to keep the house from tilting. In the process an intimate choreography is developed between the artists, the house and the environment
Schweder and Shelley designed and built the 44ft x 8ft (13.4m x 2.4m) structure – fully-equipped with a working kitchen and running water – and moved in for a five-day performance in July
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the OMI website
ADDRESS
OMI International Arts Center
1405 Co Rte 22
Ghent, NY 12075
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
-
Take off: Mathieu Lehanneur's Olympic Cauldron rises into the Parisian night sky
The Paris 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremony was closed with a soaring cauldron spectacle that will go down in history
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published
-
IM Pei's Everson Museum of Art gets a modern makeover
The East Wing of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY has been given a contemporary refresh by emerging Los Angeles studio MILLIØNS
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Black Modernism’s lesser-known, at-risk architecture gems gain a lifeline
Conserving Black Modernism announces vital funding to save and preserve overlooked and endangered buildings by African American architects and designers
By Bridget Downing Published
-
Step into the Blanton Museum of Art's reimagined public realm by Snøhetta in Austin
Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas is completed and reveals its reimagined public realm and plaza designed by Snøhetta
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
This New York Townhouse renovation is a lesson in contemporary minimalism
TenBerke’s carefully considered New York townhouse is the reimagining of a century-old Manhattan structure that reframes vertical living
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Visit The Frost House, a lesser-known modernist architecture marvel in Michigan City
The Frost House is a lesser-known midcentury architecture gem in Michigan City, Indiana; we took the tour as the property goes on the market
By Audrey Henderson Published
-
Broadway designer Scott Pask’s Arizona retreat is a scene-stealing discovery
Scott Pask invites us inside his Arizona retreat, nestled in the foothills overlooking Tucson – a place to reboot, recharge and commune with nature
By Michael Webb Published
-
Upstate New York retreat Ridge House evokes land art
Ridge House in upstate New York, the work of Brooklyn-based studio Worrell Yeung, is at one with the surrounding countryside
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Rafael de Cárdenas’ first ground-up project is a forever home with waterfront views and hidden treasures
Rafael de Cárdenas reveals his latest completed project in the Pacific Northwest, a family home of calming spaces that bleed the outside in, and ten years in the making
By Ellie Stathaki Published