Architects Eric Howeler and J. Meejin Yoon, rising stars in Boston's design industry, have built a reputation for bold explorations in architectural form in just a decade. Their design process, dubbed "extended practice," combines intensive study and transdisciplinary experimentation. Howelerand Yoon's stunning, competition-winning lighting submission for the 2004 Athens Olympics shows their reckless approach: the firm built a bright, interactive soundscape piece at the base of the Acropolis despite having no prior experience in public space interactive design. Noise in White White Light was made out of a field of semiflexible fiber-optic strands that emitted white light and white noise in response to pedestrian movement.
The project, which was a huge success, charmed a large number of people who moved among the cilia of light. Expanded Practice showcases this young firm's most recent projects, which span a wide range of scales and mediums. 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).
Expanded Practice, which is packed with drawings, schematics, and images of each project's design process, provides an inspiring peek inside one of the most intriguing young firms working in architecture today.