shotgun installation at rice gallery references houston's row houses

shotgun installation at the rice gallery references houston’s row houses
image © nash baker

shotgun by atelier bow-wow, jesús vassallo and RSA students
rice university art gallery, houston, TX, USA
on view until march 15, 2015

at the center of houston’s rice gallery, a timber installation by japanese studio atelier bow-wow, in collaboration with jesús vassallo and rice school of architecture students, references the city’s historic row houses. titled ‘shotgun’, a term coined to describe the dwelling’s typical corridor like layout, the structure fuses five row houses together to create a space that visitors can enter and walk through.

the installation references houston’s historic row houses
image © nash baker

each wing of the asterisk-shaped construction suggests a different domestic space, with seating and shelving presenting a different research projects undertaken by a student group. the last of these spaces features a selection of the students’ individual proposals that imagine new possibilities for the row house’s design and use.

the structure fuses five row houses together to create a space that visitors can walk through
image © nash baker

over the fall semester of 2014, atelier bow-wow and jesús vassallo – an architect and writer from madrid – taught the course ‘learning from houston’ to intensively study the row house’s history and contemporary condition, and to simultaneously use this research to design and build the site-specific installation. the installation and its contents are on display at the rice gallery until march 15, 2015.

each wing of the asterisk-shaped construction suggests a different domestic space
image © nash baker

the display is the result of a research project by students from rice university’s school of architecture
image © nash baker

detail of the timber structure
image © nash baker

shelving presents different research projects undertaken student groups
images © nash baker

the installation is on display at the rice gallery until march 15, 2015
image © nash baker

participating RSA students: bader albader, jacob andrew, amanda chang, ningxin cheng, june deng, edison ding, yutian he, george hewitt, joshuah howard, sara jacinto, kerry joyce, yi-chiao lee, priscilla leung, joey liang, eleanor ma, marcel merwin, jaime pagés sánchez, david richmond, pablo ruiz otaolaurruchi and chris yuan