Bernaskoni

IMMaterialBOX is a new exhibition structure in the courtyard of the Shchusev Museum of Architecture in Moscow. The pavilion’s design is based on contrast between two construction materials, i.e. birch plywood and high-tech luminous glass. The plywood façade weathers and acquires a silvery tint over time. The luminous glass is programmable and can gradually change its colour and brightness of light. This dynamic luminous glass is a powerful means not just of ‘enlivening’ structures, but also of changing the traditional relation between interior and exterior: in the hours of darkness the glass projects light not just outwards, as does any illuminated window in the evening, but inwards as well. Various versions were devised showing how IMMaterialBOX might mimic the environment round about. At MUAR the structure’s use of plywood is a reference to archetypal DIY. It might also seem, however, that the box is ‘pretending’ to be a wooden box for transporting valuable works of art.

Concept

CREDITS