New Architectural Installation On Display At Brooklyn Museum, 3/4/11-1/15/12

reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio inaugurates the first phase of the Brooklyn Museum's renovation of its first-floor 10,000-square-foot colonnadEd Hall. On view March 4, 2011, through January 15, 2012, the space-altering, site-specific architectural installation was created by Situ Studio, a Brooklyn-based creative practice specializing in design and fabrication. The installation reimagines the classically ordered space to serve as a hub, a place for all Museum visitors to meet and relax.

Situ Studio's design, which engages the existing monumental columns, consists of a series of suspended fabric canopies utilizing some 2,200 yards of fabric and furnishings that swell, expand, and augment the profiles of the columns, transforming them from base to capital. Adopting the century-old columns as central elements in the design, Situ Studio's installation will engage the unique scale and details of McKim, Mead & White's iconic late nineteenth-century structure with the goal of transforming the hall, creating a series of spaces that alternate between the colossal and the intimate.

Each canopy will be covered in Sunbrella® fabric in the style Canvas-Natural, donated by Glen Raven Custom Fabrics. The fabric will be folded and then stretched over suspended bent steel tubing and plywood rings, each with a unique radius that will give each column a different form. The fabric used in reOrder will either be returned to the manufacturing facility for recycling or reused for future projects by SITU Studio once the installation is complete.

The installation will also feature benches and tables around each column composed of sheets of LG Hausys HI-MACS solid surfacing which were donated by LG Hausys America. The sheets will be transformed into three-dimensional benches and tables using a sophisticated and controlled heat process known as thermoforming.

This project will be the first installation in the newly renovated Great Hall, which has been completely redesigned by Ennead Architects, formerly known as the Polshek Partnership. The new installation will celebrate a remarkable, double-height space that has evolved through many designs from its creation. For several years the hall was used to display pre-Columbian and Native American material. When the Situ installation closes in 2012, the central gallery space will be used as an introduction to the Museum's comprehensive collections, which range from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary works.

Visit www.brooklynmuseum.org for information about tickets and other exhibitions.