SOM: Engineering * [Art + Architecture]
September 10, 2017 - January 7, 2018

For more than eight decades, SOM has explored the poetics of structure through continual examination and experimentation. SOM: Engineering * [Art + Architecture] makes this largely unseen practice and process—and the concepts and forms that stem from it—visible. Through hand-drawn sketches, interactive sculpture, immersive video, and a lineup of more than 30 structural models at 1:500 scale, the exhibition gives insight into SOM’s engineering practice as it seeks to address physical and environmental challenges with concise and honestly expressed solutions. 

The exhibition surveys SOM’s long tradition of collaboration with visual artists and showcases models, drawings, and ephemera from projects created by Pablo Picasso, James Turrell, Jaume Plensa, James Carpenter, Janet Echelman, and Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle. Presented with Mana Contemporary Chicago in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Biennial, SOM: Engineering * [Art + Architecture] explores the idea that engineers, architects, and artists alike practice a poetry of inquiry, experimentation, and ingenuity.

Co-produced by Mana Contemporary and sponsored by Terry Dowd.