This interesting exhibition allows us to know the work by Cedric Price, a British architect, writer and educator who had a formative influence on architects such as Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, and Bernard Tschumi. The exhibition, curated at the invitation of Bureau Europa, by Jan Nauta and Samantha Hardingham, introduces the work of Price by “by presenting a cross-section of the elements of his inventive and singular practice: sketches, project drawings, recorded talks, first-hand accounts by staff, colleagues and friends. A series of selected projects present his innovative models for industry, education, government, tourism, ecology and the house.”
Price broke the conventional boundaries of architectural practice by continuously employing a broad pallet of potential design variables – engaging formal, infrastructural, organizational, operational and ethical factors into all of his design propositions. It is this level of complexity that both sets Price apart as an architect and obscures the great potential of his profound design ideas.
The material on show is sourced from the Cedric Price Fonds at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal and the private collections of the Cedric Price Estate and Lord McAlpine. According to the curators, the selection of projects has been made on the basis of their specific relevance to current spatial, economic and social issues of the Meuse-Rhine Euregion, a cross-border region that currently faces a number of challenges that are typical for post-industrial areas, such as a declining economy and the shrinking and aging of its population. Local initiatives, such as IBA Parkstad, aim to ‘update’ the region and to help it to regain confidence, - a key ingredient for economic and social redevelopment. It is this aspiration to reinvent a region that provides the impetus to show the work of CP.
When.- open until the 22nd March 2015.
Where.- at Timmerfabriek, Boschstraat 9. Maastricht. The Netherlands.
