Storrs Gallery

Located in the Thomas I. Storrs Building on the UNC Charlotte campus, the Storrs Gallery showcases professional and student work relating to the curriculum in the School of Architecture and the creative endeavors of the College.

About the CoA+A Gallery System

The mission of the College of Arts + Architecture gallery system is to create lively forums in which the curious encounter the work of global, regional, and local artists through diverse media and dynamic exchanges that are nourished by the intellectual and creative life of the university. Our programming will echo crossovers of the visual arts, architecture, music, theatre, and dance inherent to the College of Arts + Architecture at UNC Charlotte. We seek to provide a haven for experimentation, to invigorate the environments we occupy, and to amplify the means to engage art and design in our community.

Current Exhibition

Axi:Ome, Between Research and Practice

Storrs Gallery
March 11-April 26
Opening reception, March 11, 5:30-7:30 pm

The School of Architecture and Storrs Gallery present Between Research and Practice, an installation of models, renderings, and projection from Axi:Ome, an architecture design and research practice based in St. Louis, MO.

The name Axi:Ome is derived from the crossing of two Latin words: the noun axiom (a self-evident or universally recognized truth) and the verb forme (to form, compose, or assemble). The practice is led by Sung Ho Kim and Heather Woofter, both on the architecture faculty at Washington University in St. Louis.

Between Research and Practice presents projects that fall within a spectrum of built and speculative, research-driven works. Several projects investigate “invisible forces”– light, wind, reflections, illusions. In Prism Tower, the light-refracting panels dynamically shift the presence of the vertical structure, coloring shadows and creating the illusion of space that breaks free of twisting formations. Urban Mirage suggests a mirage effect between ground and sky, played out through a floating diaphragm. Carbon Tower explores thin structural veins that strengthen with increasing wind loads, while Women’s Shelter calculates light patterns across seasonal shifts to guide light’s entry into otherwise dark interiors.

Public gathering spaces explore the social interactivity of work and play zones. Designs derive from people and the social events they create. With the street and public interiors as one, several projects explore layers of projected media and devices that read the landscape. An additional set of projects considers systems of landscape with building components: Terra Garden’s twisted towers create an interface between river and urban water gardens; the Orchid Tower in Taiwan is a vertical botanical garden organized in a system of hydroponic infrastructures.

A unique installation created especially for Storrs Gallery will place these and other models along an elevated serpentine path that winds through the room, with 2D representations mounted and projected along the walls. Sung Ho Kim and Heather Woofter will be present for the opening reception to speak about their work. Woofter will return to UNC Charlotte to present a public lecture of this work on Friday, March 29th at 6:30pm in Storrs Auditorium as part of the ARCC 2013 Architectural Research Conference (www.arcc2013.uncc.edu), hosted by the School of Architecture. The exhibition closes on April 26.