Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979 explores the crucial role of modern architecture— buildings, interiors, furniture, cities and product design—in constructing the Playboy imaginary. The exhibition shows how architecture was mobilized to shape a new sexual and consumer identity for the American male and how architectural taste became critical to success in the art of seduction. Through an extraordinary quantity of architecture and architects featured in Playboy, the magazine played an important role in informing the public, particularly American men, about design and architecture in relation to literature, politics, art, lifestyle and fashion. Looking at the changing nature of Playboy architecture not only provides a way of understanding how Playboy’s project changed from the mid 1950s to the late 1970s; it also reveals how Playboy’s idealized world became a reality that was ingrained into America’s national identity and had a massive global impact.
Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979 has been developed and curated by Professor Beatriz Colomina, Professor at Princeton University’s School of Architecture and Founding Director of the Program in Media and Modernity. In 2006-2007 she curated, with a group of Princeton Ph.D. students, the exhibition "Clip/Stamp/Fold: The Radical Architecture of Little Magazines 196X-197X" that was also published in METALOCUS in 2010 (see below).
Curatorial Team
Beatriz Colomina, Director, Ph.D. Program in Architecture, Princeton University --- Britt Eversole, Federica Vannucchi, Margo Handwerker, Ph.D. candidates, Princeton University School of Architecture -- with -- Pep Aviles, Marc Britz and Daria Ricchi, Ph.D. candidates, Princeton University School of Architecture
Playboy Research Team
Joseph Bedford, Britt Eversole, Daria Ricchi, Vanessa Grossman, Marc Britz, Daniela Fabricius, Margo Handwerker, Yetunde Oliaya, Federica Vannucchi, Pep Aviles, Enrique Ramirez and Molly Steenson
Design Team
Exhibition design: EventArchitectuur
Graphic design: Experimental Jetset
Playboy Architecture 1953-1979.
Venue: NAiM/Bureau Europa, Avenue Ceramique 226, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Dates: September 29 – February 10, 2013.
The Dutch architecture magazine Volume has published a special issue on Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979. This special is available as a handout for visitors of the exhibition. Below for more information about the Volume special.
published in: M-024 | p. 4
Clip / Stamp / Fold. The Radical Architecture of “Little Magazines” 196X-197X. | Beatriz Colomina
published in: M-024 | TA.01 | p. 133