WHAT: “Richard Rogers: Inside Out”
WHEN: Now through October 13
WHERE: The Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, 6 Burlington Gardens, London
WHY THIS SHOW MATTERS: The arrival of the radically-designed Centre Georges Pompidou in 1977 caught Parisians off guard; whether they were ready or not, it provided an introduction to a post-Corbusier, rebellious brand of modern architecture by literally turning stuffy museum conventions inside-out. A young Italian-born, British-trained architect named Richard Rogers, with partner Renzo Piano, had taken the basic infrastructural elements — the pipes and ducts that controlled heating, cooling, plumbing — technicolor-coded them, and placed them on the glass-and-steel exterior as if they were decoration. The unorthodox arrangement both shocked and delighted the public, and provided the interior with uninterrupted exhibition space. It took Rogers’s status as a no-name architect with a fondness for American modernism and recast him as a pioneer in architecture’s High-Tech movement, an iconoclast, and a visionary. And that was just the beginning.
Forty years, a trove of critically acclaimed buildings, and a Pritzker Prize later, Rogers is the subject of a 50-year retrospective on view now at London’s Royal Academy. The exhibition catalogues his body of work through the usual effects of an architectural show — photographs, floorplans, and scale models — but aims to provide a broader portrait of a man whom the Pritzker jury lauded as “a champion of urban life.” As evidence of the social and political relevance of his career, the show provides samples of articles, lectures, and TV appearances that reflect the direct advisory role he played for local governments’ efforts in city planning. The bicycle-powered espresso machine in the third gallery speaks to his advocacy for technology and sustainability, as does the flat-packed energy-efficient home standing in the academy’s courtyard.
The content is as biographical as it is historical, weaving flourishes of neon pink, green, and yellow throughout the exhibition design to reflect Rogers’s personal sense of style (noted for an aggressive use of color-blocking). Architectural buffs can look forward to seeing his personal effects, including a report from his second year of study at the Architectural Association: “His designs will continue to suffer while his drawing is so bad,” it reads, likely explaining the show’s lack of sketches.
To see highlights from “Richard Rogers: Inside Out,” click on the slideshow.