2x2: Architectural Collaborations elaborates on the theme of Equal Partners, looking at innovative projects and collaborative styles of a newer generation of architects, including a sister/sister partnership. Firms from both coasts of the United States are participating in the exhibition: Berkeley-based LOOM; Davids Killory, San Francisco; Lubowicki and Lanier, Los Angeles; Chu+Gooding, Los Angeles; OpenOffice, New York; LOT/EK, New York; Kuth Ranieri, San Francisco; and Hariri & Hariri, New York. Among the projects presented is Houses X Artists, in which the New York studio OpenOffice collaborates with a dozen acclaimed contemporary artists on the design of their dream homes. The end product of the project will be a traveling multimedia museum exhibition and book which cover both the process and the promise of the houses. A major thrust of the project is to investigate the use of new materials and media in the development and presentation of the ideas. For 2x2, OpenOffice has created the initial part of the planned larger exhibition. It is a video overview of the project along with a specially designed viewing station created by one of the participating artists, T. Kelly Mason of Los Angeles. Other artists involved with the project include Barbara Bloom, Chris Burden, Stan Douglas, and Jessica Stockholder. The founding partners of OpenOffice are Alan Koch and Linda Taalman. Recently two more partners joined, Galia Solomonoff and Lyn Rice. One of the projects featured by LOT/EK Architecture (Principals: Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano), also based in New York, is the Morton Loft. Currently being completed in Manhattan's West Village, the Morton Loft is a residential space converted from a former parking garage. This situation lends itself to LOT/EK's ethos, which is to integrate organic and manufactured materials from the contemporary urban landscape into their design. LOT/EK often uses prefabricated objects and invents new functions for the byproducts of industrial and technological culture. For the Morton Loft, LOT/EK cut a petroleum trailer tank in two and incorporated the pieces as a sleeping area within the loft. One piece placed horizontally on a mezzanine level creates the bedrooms, and one placed vertically holds two bathrooms, one atop the other. Each firm has shown models, drawings, or photographs, and in some cases videos, of projects that particularly highlight the collaborative aspects of their practice-not only how the principals work together, but also the collaborations necessary between architect and client, and architect and contractors. Naturally, the more formal issues of architecture-addressing the site, materials, existing structures-are ever present to reconcile. Always, however, the emphasis is on how successful designs emerge from the dialectics of collaboration.
