墨尔本“2 Girls Building”艺术摄影建筑综合体

The 2 Girls Building is a mixed use building that fuses art, photography and architecture. The project explores the relationship between the three disciplines and blurs their respective boundaries resulting in one craft overlapping and appropriating with the characteristics of the others in the form of a new medium. As a result the artistic photography shifts into the architectural space of the third dimension and appropriates the architectural materiality of the project. Architecture becomes photography, photography becomes architecture and the building becomes a hybrid urban artefact within the built local environment. KUD collaborated with Melbourne Artist Samantha Everton during the design process to ensure a collaborative integration of art forms throughout the project. The “Masquerade” image, from Everton’s ‘Vintage Dolls’ series, that features on the building façade, was specifically selected for its familiar vernacular in its subject matter which is synonymous with inner city traditional domestic spaces and more importantly, for the drama and theatre it provides to the public realm. The primary circulation space doubles as a de facto art gallery with art works on display. The space conforms to standard gallery typology widths and acts as a buffer between the offices, warehouse spaces and residential apartments. This collaboration between artist and architect injected another layer of complexity; unintentionally exchanging and swapping the roll of the architect to artist and the artist to architect. During the process the boundaries of the alliance were often blurred, redefining ‘the artist’ and ‘the architect’ as one singular expression. This synergy spawned a hybrid typology and ensured that the photo-archi-art prevailed.