Manhattan underfoot


 

The hardwood floor of John Hartell Gallery in Sibley Dome now has carpet, but only temporarily – and you can’t walk on it. Though you can see Central Park.

“Urban Fabric,” on view through Sept. 30, features textural patterns on carpet, based on actual scale maps of major cities. The three large finished projects on display represent Toronto, Los Angeles and Manhattan. The patterns were extruded and meticulously carved out of hand-tufted New Zealand virgin wool.

Presented by the College of Architecture, Art and Planning, the interdisciplinary project was conceived by architects and noted furniture designers Andrei Zerebecky and Lukasz Kos, founders of Four O Nine, with offices in Shanghai and Warsaw. The display includes test samples of other city carpets, and documentation of the design process such as sketches and cartographic scans.

Also showing through Sept. 30: “The Endless Picnic Tables, Then and Now,” configured by Rand Hall shop technician Chris Oliver in the Tjaden Hall Experimental Gallery; and “Dark Rooms 1: Pyramid,” in B56 East Sibley, the first of three exhibitions by students in visiting assistant professor Mona Mahall’s Dark Rooms architecture studio.

– Daniel Aloi