Snarkitecture’s ‘Fun House’ has opened in the Great Hall of the National Building Museum in Washington DC as part of the institution’s annual Summer Block Party series and it’s likely to be the Instagram hit of the season.
Following in the footsteps of Bjarke Ingels Group, Studio Gang and James Corner Field Operations, who have all created installations at the museum, Snarkitecture has created a white temporary structure that houses some of its most memorable work. The ‘Fun House’, curated by Maria Cristina Didero, will be Snarkitecture’s first comprehensive museum showing and coincides with the practice’s tenth anniversary.
Aerial view of ‘Fun House’, 2018, by Snarkitecture at the National Building Museum, Washington DC.
‘A little over a year ago, we started working on our first book about Snarkitecture, which is coming out in April with Phaidon,’ recalls Alex Mustonen, who founded the practice with Daniel Arsham. ‘The process of sifting through hundreds of projects – from when we first started the studio in 2008 through last year – became an opportunity to reflect on the wide range of work we’ve created within the larger ideas of the practice.’
He adds, ‘In editing and organising everything to fit within the context of a book that would introduce new audiences to Snarkitecture, we started to think of the idea of an exhibition with a similar aim. Many of our projects have existed in a specific places for a short duration of time, so what would it look like to bring these moments together within a single venue, accessible to a diverse audience? We wanted to invite visitors to experience past objects, installations and architectural scale projects by Snarkitecture in a tactile and immersive way.’
Staged within a freestanding, house-like structure that riffs on the idea of a typical home, ‘Fun House’ comprises a series of interactive rooms that showcase recognisable Snarkitecture environments and objects from over the years, as well as new concepts developed especially for the occasion.
Installation view of The Beach, 2015, by Snarkitecture, an interactive exhibition of more than one million antimicrobial balls that filled the Great Hall at the National Building Museum in Washington DC.
The house features a front and back yard filled with ‘outdoor activities’ for visitors to enjoy, plus a kidney-shaped pool full of antimicrobial balls echoing Snarkitecture’s popular The Beach installation (above), which made its debut at the National Building Museum in 2015 before continuing on in numerous iterations and travelling around the world.
‘Making architecture and design approachable and fun is at the heart of the success of our sumer series,’ says Chase Rynd, executive director of the National Building Museum. ‘Snarkitecture really understands our mission of inspiring curiosity about the world we design and build, and we’re excited to be working with them for the second time.’
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Snarkitecture website and National Building Museum website
ADDRESS
National Building Museum
401 F Street NW
Washington DC 20001
-
The great American museum boomNine of the world’s top ten most expensive, recently announced cultural projects are in the US. What is driving this investment, and is this statistic sustainable?
-
Here’s how Heathrow is reimagining airport chaos as ambient musicGrammy-nominated Jordan Rakei turns travel noise into a meditative soundtrack by sampling everything from baggage belts to jet engines
-
Wallpaper* checks into Gansevoort Meatpacking, an art-filled hotel that mirrors the district’s glow-upThis sharp, stylish New York hotel is a fixture in its neighbourhood, where boutiques, restaurants and clubs have long since taken over spaces once occupied by slaughterhouses
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscapeArtist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, DiversGeordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took placeMarc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
A major Takashi Murakami exhibition sees the world in kaleidoscopic colourThe Cleveland Art Museum presents 'Takashi Murakami 'Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow', exploring outrage and escapist fantasy
-
Ai Weiwei’s new public installation is coming soon to Four Freedoms State Park‘Camouflage’ by Ai Weiwei will launch the inaugural Art X Freedom project in September 2025, a new programme to investigate social justice and freedom
-
Leonard Baby's paintings reflect on his fundamentalist upbringing, a decade after he left the churchThe American artist considers depression and the suppressed queerness of his childhood in a series of intensely personal paintings, on show at Half Gallery, New York
-
Desert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows in the Coachella ValleyWill Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights
-
In ‘The Last Showgirl’, nostalgia is a drug like any otherGia Coppola takes us to Las Vegas after the party has ended in new film starring Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
