Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg Intermediate 1 Unit Tutors and students visit their solo exhibition, Value in the Virtual at ArkDes next week

Lesmes and Hellberg founded Space Popular, a multidisciplinary design and research practice, in 2013 and have since completed built projects both in Asia and Europe and have participated in a wide range of international competitions.

In ‘Value in the Virtual’ Space Popular unfold an immersive installation exploring the role of architecture, and architects, in the design of virtual worlds. Layering physical and virtual environments into a single immersive experience, ‘Value in the Virtual’ takes the form of two simultaneously active environments, one physical and one virtual. In the exhibition full-scale fragments of Stockholm dissolve, mutate, distort and replicate and a constellation of possible futures in which material values are radically recast can be envisioned.

As part of the AA's Open Week 29 October – 2 November, Fredrik and Lara and Intermediate 1 students will visit ArkDes next week. The unit will take part in a curated discussion: You Are a Citizen of Virtual Worlds, which will convene a collection of voices from Sweden and abroad around questions raised by their exhibition Space Popular: Value in the Virtual. In the context of the exhibition, Boxen acts as a shared space and testing ground for conversations about the role of architecture in the burgeoning virtual sphere. Intermediate 1 students will also curate a temporary virtual exhibition, showcasing their projects through social VR platform Sansar. Visitors will be able to explore the students' exhibition using VR devices, in the museum or join the virtual space from anywhere in the world.

Attached is a full programme of the event: You are a Citizens of Virtual World

The exhibition will run from 19 September – 18 November at ArkDes, Stockholm.

To find out more please visit https://arkdes.se/en/utstallning/space-popular-value-in-the-virtual/

Curator: James Taylor-Foster

First published on AA News: 11.09.18