Work by Daniels Faculty Alumni Jimenez Lai (MArch 2007) and his firm Bureau Spectacular will be featured in the exhibition, Flipping Properties, from July 11 to September 14, 2014. The exhibition will take place in an unconventional location: a laneway in Toronto's Little Portugal neighbourhood. The project was commissioned by Rear View (Projects), a curatorial collective founded by Jennifer Davis (MArch 2011) and Su-Ying Lee (who completed a Master of Visual Studies in Curatorial Studies at U of T).

The opening is scheduled for Friday, July 11, 2014 from 6:00 to 9:00pm in the laneway at Sheridan Avenue and Gordon Street (see the map below). A performance will take place at 7:00pm followed by a talk between Lai and CBC radio host Britt Wray.

Flipping Properties is a continuation of an ongoing study of super-furnitures by Lai, an architect, and the team of Bureau Spectacular. The installation takes the familiar house icon, the pentagon, as its formal starting point. Lai denatures this symbol of domesticity, converting it into super-furniture which is ‘too big to be furniture and too small to be architecture.’ This intervention in Toronto’s urban fabric provokes us to reconsider the potential uses for overlooked spaces in the city and question typical modes of interaction between art, place and audiences.

During the opening event on July 11, 2014, pieces of the installation will tumble and relocate within the laneway, creating a place for neighbours to gather and imagine an architecture that can reorient infinitely.  Join us for a lively talk with Lai and CBC host, Britt Wray, who will discuss the topic of ‘rotation’ from the varied perspectives of architecture and science.

For more information, please visit the Rear View (Projects) website.

UPDATE (August 20, 2014):

Flipping Properties was featured on the Design Boom website, including photos of the opening event on July 11, 2014 which was attended by over 100 people.

An opening event for Flipping Properties was held on July 11, 2014, and featured discussions with Jimenez Lai and science radio producer Britt Wray (CBC, WNYC), on the topic of adapting houses. The structures serve as built examples related to talking points in the conversation, and provoked visitors to, ‘reconsider the potential uses for overlooked spaces in the city and question typical modes of interaction between art, place and audiences.’

The installed pieces are on display until September 14, 2014, in an alley near the intersection of Sheridan Avenue and Gordon Street in Toronto.

All images courtesy of Bureau Spectacular / Jimenez Lai