Soft Civic, a site-specific architectural installation by Bryony Roberts Studio, responds to both the architectural geometry of the historic Columbus City Hall building and its symbolic role as the center of civic leadership in the community. Through the insertion of the custom-fabricated structures with colorful woven surfaces, Roberts activates the public space surrounding the building’s main entrance as a destination for play, performance, and participation. These new structures enhance existing activity at City Hall and additionally will host a series of community-driven events on the themes of democracy and leadership as part of the 2019 Exhibit Columbus program. Roberts is a winner of this year's J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Recipient, honoring international leaders for their commitment to the transformative power that architecture, art, and design has to improve people's lives and make cities better places to live.

Addressing the monumental architecture of the City Hall building, designed in 1981 by Edward Charles Bassett of SOM,  Soft Civic turns its monumental geometry into soft, pliable structures. The existing building is a tight geometric puzzle of circles and triangles organized along with the grand public steps. The installation echoes and breaks open the geometry of the building, forming other circles and lines—through curved seating structures and platforms that emerge from the design—that connect with the building and suggest different points of attention. Says Roberts, “When I approach a site, I think about the longtime cycles of that site, the way that social, political, economic forces have changed it over time, and how I’m entering into that process.”