#LOOSLAB - Designers' Saturday
LOOSLAB. Designers' Saturday, Langenthal. November 2 to 4, 2018
Nominee, Swiss Design Award 2019/20; Category: Spatial Design
For Designers' Saturday 2018, students from the Department of Interior Architecture presented an experiment that explored the interaction between reality and illusion: the #LOOSLAB. This installation drew inspiration from the Austrian architect Adolf Loos, the author of the manifesto "Ornament and Crime." The entire construction was made from stickers, printed and attached to MDF boards, investigating the impact of image culture on contemporary interiors and their representation in the media, and exploring the concepts of fake and authentic.
The project embodied an illusion. It was modeled after Loos' American Bar and its subsequent historical iterations, with the aim of documenting and reflecting on the reinterpretations and manipulations of its multiple images. #LOOSLAB presented a unique representation, going beyond being a mere copy or simulacrum. It was designed both for inhabitation and circulation as an image, specifically as a collage of stickers meant to be photographed and shared online. The project received special mention from the jury, highlighting its contemporary and visually captivating qualities. Additionally, its collaborative nature, both spatially and conceptually, was acknowledged.
Ultimately, #LOOSLAB materialized as a speculative protocol:
- Search online for images of the American Bar.
- Merge Loos' original with its different iterations, blending fiction and reality.
- Sample them to create a new spatial configuration.
- Construct a physical wooden structure serving as an inverted decor.
- Populate the interior with materials in the form of stickers: printed, cut, and pasted.
- Reality takes the form of the image.
- Invite visitors to enjoy a cocktail.
- Take a picture.
- Open exclusively for a three-day period.
- Dismantle the project and reassemble it in a different location, whether physical or virtual.