Rooms, Behaviors, Performances

An undergraduate design studio, where the sensibilities of a room clarify an order for a building, translating interior qualities into a sequence of spaces, instructed in 2023

Rooms, Behaviors, Performances asks how the ambiguous definition of a room can be unpacked through the lens of surface, light, color, furniture, objects and apertures. From a canonical room, physical and perceived interior components are abstracted and reassembled in collaborative models to uncover an ordering system. Individual rooms are constructed at ½” scale while developed surface drawings inform a larger field. Photographs of miniature models project how room qualities behave, allowing viewers to perceive the spaces as if inhabiting them 1:1. Room assemblies are further defined as a small cultural center, extending from the inside out, producing a lush world that retreats into a complex array of material affect.

Image Credit: Wenjun Zheng, Phi Tan Du, Hamza Sadiq, Leena Saadeh, Iman Beg, Asher Bentley, Abigail Chang

Contributors: University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture students co-taught by Abigail Chang, Stewart Hicks (coordinator), Grant Gibson, Sarah Blankenbaker