Expanded Practice: Höweler + Yoon Architecture/My Studio

Book excerpt: Rising stars in Boston's design scene, architects Eric Howeler and J. Meejin Yoon have in a single decade developed a reputation for radical experiments in architectural form. Their design methodology--what they call an "expanded practice"--combines intense research with interdisciplinary experimentation. Howeler and Yoon's sensational, competition-winning lighting entry for the 2004 Athens Olympics exemplifies their fearless approach: without any prior experience in public space interactive design, the firm constructed a luminous, interactive soundscape installation at the base of the Acropolis. White Noise White Light featured a field of semiflexible fiber-optic strands that emitted white light and white noise in response to the movement of pedestrians. The project, an enormous success, enchanted a multitude of visitors who moved amidst the cilia of light. Expanded Practice presents twenty-nine recent projects by this young firm encompassing a broad range of scales and media. The projects, divided into distinct but often overlapping research themes, include a museum courtyard program inspired by the Voronoi cell-packing algorithm (PS1 Loop); an outdoor light installation featuring hovering cones that capture and interact with solar energy, rainwater, and sound (Hover); a garment designed to turn inside out as it unravels (Mobius Dress); and a landscape design that weaves technology and texture into an integrated and interactive landscape (Tripanel). Packed with drawings, diagrams, and photographs of each project's design process, Expanded Practice provides an inspirational look into one of the most exciting young firms working in architecture today.