Writing Art History Since 2002

First Title

Currently on view at MoMA, the exhibition Small Scale, Big Change presents eleven architectural projects on five continents that respond to localised needs in underserved communities

Noero Wolff Architects, Red Location Museum Of Struggle, Port Elizabeth, 1998—2005. Photo: Iwan Baan
NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2010 — Upon entering the Small Scale, Big Change exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City one is immediately confronted with the proposition that something magnanimous is happening in the architectural field on a global scale.

The exhibition highlights the work of eight
architects from around the world who have taken
a socially conscious approach to their practices.
It subverts the commonly viewed perspective of
architecture as a field of luxurious undertaking with
plans that often come attached to multi-million
dollar development costs that are most often located
in the financial centres of the world.

This exhibition
places emphasis on what I consider to be one of the
greatest potentialities in the architectural field — the
structural impact on the formation of community.
Architecture has the incredible power to dictate
modes of socialisation. It influences the engagement
between individuals and provides a physical
marker for establishing the individual’s sense of
place.

Read more in the December 2010 edition of Art South Africa, out now.

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