SmartWrap
January 24 - April 4, 2004 SmartWrap Courtesy of KieranTimberlake Associates, LTD. Photo by Barry Halkin |
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Imagine bricks and mortar being replaced by "smart" walls that are made of an ultra-thin polymer-based film-the same material used in a plastic soda bottle. And imagine that the technology used to make these walls "smart" is applied by a printing process. SmartWrap is a concept for a new building material that integrates the segregated functions of a conventional wall, like shelter and insulation, and compresses them into one composite film that can be erected in a fraction of ordinary building time. Previously exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, SmartWrap will be installed in the ICA lobby with interpretive materials exhibited in the ICA Project Space. The installation at ICA shows how SmartWrap can be customized with pattern or color using printing technology -- a dramatic development with potential for transforming not only architecture but also all aspects of design in the next decade.
 SmartWrap (detail) Courtesy of KieranTimberlake Associates, LTD. Photo by Barry Halkin |
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KieranTimberlake Associates LLP is an award-winning and internationally published architecture firm noted for its research and innovation. Their emphasis on cross discipline research has been a key force in their progressive research. The genesis for this SmartWrap project was in research laboratory studios conducted by partners Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake with graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania. This research has been extended through the inaugural award of the American Institute of Architect's national design research prize, the Benjamin Henry Latrobe Fellowship.
“Ideally, the only limitation to the type of technology that can be incorporated into the SmartWrap is that it must be capable of being miniaturized and suspended in printing ink. Does this mean that we will soon see the day when the basic technology used to activate a building becomes virtually invisible? Will architects assume an additional role of graphic designer to determine not only the technological programming of a building, but how it looks on the façade? SmartWrap proposes all of this and more, but most importantly, relies on the creative potential of the architect, designer, and engineer to make it happen.” -- Matilda McQuaid, Exhibitions Curator and Head of Textiles, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Times
 SmartWrap (detail) Courtesy of KieranTimberlake Associates, LTD. Photo by Barry Halkin |
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SmartWrap is part of ICA's Design + Architecture Series. These exhibitions introduce cutting-edge architecture and design to Philadelphia audiences, and enables internationally renowned architects and designers to realize their ideas in a museum setting. Series exhibitions have included "Intricacy" curated by Greg Lynn; "Stratascape", curated by Asymptote and Karim Rashid; "The Architectural Unconscious: James Casebere and Glen Seator", and "Hella Jongerius and Jurgen Bey".
SmartWrap was first presented in Summer 2003 at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution; the installation was made possible by DuPont.
Special thanks to Matilda McQuaid, Exhibition Curator and Head of Textiles, Cooper-Hewitt. National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
ICA is grateful for the support of The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Dietrich Foundation Inc., the Overseers Board for the Institute of Contemporary Art, friends and members of ICA, and the University of Pennsylvania. (Information complete as of 12/2/03.)
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