Architecture and Landscape Take Centerstage at MoMA

New York's Museum of Modern Art explores the relationship between architecture and landscape design.

Sheila Kim -- Interior Design, 4/8/2009

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Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, Edgar J. Kaufmann House in Mill Run, Pennsylvania (1937), image courtesy of Best Products Company Architecture Fund and the Museum of Modern Art.

With architects and designers becoming increasingly aware of and concerned about the environment, it's timely for an exhibition to examine the close relationship between architecture and its setting. The Museum of Modern Art focuses on this subject matter in "In Situ: Architecture and Landscape" starting today. Rather than look at straightforward attempts to preserve the environment, however, the show explores more complex interventions by both architects and landscape architects.

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From left: Tadao Ando's Chikatsa-Asuka Historical Museum in Osaka, Japan (1991); Superstudio, Gian Piero Frassinelli, Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, Alessandro Magris, and Adolfo Natalini's Continuous Monument in the Alpine Lakes (1969); images courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art.

To demonstrate this, some 60 works have been culled from the museum's own collections, including drawings, models, and videos. The earlier examples being shown include Frank Lloyd Wright's 1939 Fallingwater (Edgar J. Kaufmann House) in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, and Mies van der Rohe's 1927-built Wolf House, situated on the border of Germany and Poland. The latter inspired Philip Johnson to create his celebrated mid-century modern Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut.

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Roberto Burle Marx's Garden Design for Saenz Pena Square in Rio de Janeiro (1948), image courtesy of Museum of Modern Art.

While these are exemplary of how the landscape informed and inspired the architecture, other displays speak of the transformation of industrial zones into parks, and gardens that bring nature back into urban settings: Toyo Ito's Relaxation Park in Torrevieja, Spain; Roberto Burle Marx's Saenz Pena Square in Rio de Janeiro; and Bernard Tschumi's Parc de la Villette in Paris.

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The exhibition runs through September 14, 2009.

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