The Southern California Institute of Architecture(SCI-Arc)announced Rawhide by Los Angeles-based architect and SCI-Arc alumnus Jason Payne(B.Arch'94),on view in the SCI-Arc Gallery from July 29 through September 11,2011.Rawhide explores Payne's critically-acclaimed project Raspberry Fields,a residential project sited in northern Utah,focusing on its signature use of curled shingles as exterior cladding.For the SCI-Arc Gallery,Payne and his boutique architectural practice Hirsuta explore the architectural surface,from"skin"to"hide,"in a full-scale reconstruction of part of the roof of Raspberry Fields,which forms the central piece of the gallery exhibition.
The satisfying abundance of the raw hide forms the core thematic of the gallery exhibition,displayed by laying bare the shingle-clad roof of Raspberry Fields at 1:1 scale.Imagine a bearskin rug the size of a building and you'll get the idea.The exhibition begins with the unfolding of the project's exterior blanket according to its primary underlying geometries,followed by its reconfiguration in the SCI-Arc Gallery.In addition,given the rural context of the original project and the conceptual connection sought between cladding and animal hides,the roof is surrounded by real cowhides refigured as abstract bodies.
The"curly shingles"that so delight the fans of Raspberry Fields take center stage in this exhibition.While in the original project curling is achieved naturally through weathering-a process that would take years-here the compression of decades-long stochastic deformation is achieved through steam-curling to stimulate the effects of decades-long freeze-thaw dynamics of the harsh northern Utah climate.When applied to the prostrate form of the relaxed roofscape of Raspberry Fields,the lush coat of cedar shingles take on the quality of an animal hide par excellence,moving architectural cladding toward something more wild and feral…the becoming animal of architecture.
