0:00:00.108,0:00:03.487
We conventionally divide space

0:00:03.511,0:00:05.049
into private and public realms,

0:00:05.073,0:00:08.316
and we know these legal[br]distinctions very well

0:00:08.340,0:00:10.324
because we've become experts

0:00:10.348,0:00:14.184
at protecting our private[br]property and private space.

0:00:14.208,0:00:16.088
But we're less attuned

0:00:16.112,0:00:19.643
to the nuances of the public.

0:00:19.667,0:00:23.566
What translates generic public[br]space into qualitative space?

0:00:23.590,0:00:24.972
I mean, this is something

0:00:24.996,0:00:26.797
that our studio has been working on

0:00:26.821,0:00:28.305
for the past decade.

0:00:28.329,0:00:30.568
And we're doing this[br]through some case studies.

0:00:30.592,0:00:32.057
A large chunk of our work

0:00:32.081,0:00:33.597
has been put into transforming

0:00:33.621,0:00:36.393
this neglected industrial ruin

0:00:36.417,0:00:39.466
into a viable post-industrial space

0:00:39.490,0:00:40.967
that looks forward and backward

0:00:40.991,0:00:42.228
at the same time.

0:00:42.252,0:00:44.730
And another huge chunk of our work

0:00:44.754,0:00:46.768
has gone into making relevant

0:00:46.792,0:00:49.464
a site that's grown[br]out of sync with its time.

0:00:49.488,0:00:52.508
We've been working[br]on democratizing Lincoln Center

0:00:52.532,0:00:56.226
for a public that doesn't[br]usually have $300

0:00:56.250,0:00:59.991
to spend on an opera ticket.

0:01:00.015,0:01:01.682
So we've been eating, drinking,

0:01:01.706,0:01:03.976
thinking, living public space

0:01:04.000,0:01:05.947
for quite a long time.

0:01:05.971,0:01:08.216
And it's taught us really one thing,

0:01:08.240,0:01:12.184
and that is to truly[br]make good public space,

0:01:12.208,0:01:15.434
you have to erase the distinctions

0:01:15.458,0:01:18.059
between architecture, urbanism,

0:01:18.083,0:01:19.934
landscape, media design

0:01:19.958,0:01:21.518
and so on.

0:01:21.542,0:01:23.547
It really goes beyond distinction.

0:01:23.571,0:01:26.601
Now we're moving onto Washington, D.C.

0:01:26.625,0:01:28.934
and we're working[br]on another transformation,

0:01:28.958,0:01:31.559
and that is for the existing[br]Hirshhorn Museum

0:01:31.583,0:01:33.184
that's sited

0:01:33.208,0:01:35.476
on the most revered[br]public space in America,

0:01:35.500,0:01:38.409
the National Mall.

0:01:38.433,0:01:39.976
The Mall is a symbol

0:01:40.000,0:01:42.809
of American democracy.

0:01:42.833,0:01:45.809
And what's fantastic is that this symbol

0:01:45.833,0:01:48.018
is not a thing, it's not an image,

0:01:48.042,0:01:49.726
it's not an artifact,

0:01:49.750,0:01:51.434
actually it's a space,

0:01:51.458,0:01:54.284
and it's kind of just defined[br]by a line of buildings

0:01:54.308,0:01:56.315
on either side.

0:01:56.339,0:02:00.059
It's a space where citizens[br]can voice their discontent

0:02:00.083,0:02:01.352
and show their power.

0:02:01.376,0:02:04.268
It's a place where pivotal[br]moments in American history

0:02:04.292,0:02:06.424
have taken place.

0:02:06.448,0:02:08.830
And they're inscribed in there forever --

0:02:08.854,0:02:11.209
like the march on Washington[br]for jobs and freedom

0:02:11.233,0:02:14.301
and the great speech that Martin[br]Luther King gave there.

0:02:14.325,0:02:18.684
The Vietnam protests,[br]the commemoration of all that died

0:02:18.708,0:02:20.726
in the pandemic of AIDS,

0:02:20.750,0:02:23.268
the march for women's reproductive rights,

0:02:23.292,0:02:26.726
right up until almost the present.

0:02:26.750,0:02:29.888
The Mall is the greatest civic stage

0:02:29.912,0:02:33.559
in this country for dissent.

0:02:33.583,0:02:37.447
And it's synonymous with free speech,

0:02:37.471,0:02:40.138
even if you're not sure what it[br]is that you have to say.

0:02:40.162,0:02:45.168
It may just be a place[br]for civic commiseration.

0:02:45.192,0:02:48.809
There is a huge disconnect, we believe,

0:02:48.833,0:02:52.976
between the communicative[br]and discursive space of the Mall

0:02:53.000,0:02:57.018
and the museums that line[br]it to either side.

0:02:57.042,0:03:00.643
And that is that those[br]museums are usually passive,

0:03:00.667,0:03:04.018
they have passive relationships[br]between the museum

0:03:04.042,0:03:05.662
as the presenter and the audience,

0:03:05.686,0:03:07.934
as the receiver of information.

0:03:07.958,0:03:09.684
And so you can see dinosaurs

0:03:09.708,0:03:13.768
and insects and collections of locomotives

0:03:13.792,0:03:15.093
and all of that,

0:03:15.117,0:03:16.624
but you're really not involved;

0:03:16.648,0:03:18.268
you're being talked to.

0:03:18.292,0:03:22.971
When Richard Koshalek took[br]over as director of the Hirshhorn

0:03:22.995,0:03:24.768
in 2009,

0:03:24.792,0:03:27.184
he was determined to take advantage

0:03:27.208,0:03:30.434
of the fact that this museum was sited

0:03:30.458,0:03:32.184
at the most unique place:

0:03:32.208,0:03:34.059
at the seat of power in the U.S.

0:03:34.083,0:03:36.268
And while art and politics

0:03:36.292,0:03:41.726
are inherently and implicitly[br]together always and all the time,

0:03:41.750,0:03:45.893
there could be some very[br]special relationship

0:03:45.917,0:03:49.809
that could be forged[br]here in its uniqueness.

0:03:49.833,0:03:52.434
The question is, is it possible ultimately

0:03:52.458,0:03:54.184
for art to insert itself

0:03:54.208,0:03:57.309
into the dialogue of national[br]and world affairs?

0:03:57.333,0:04:01.178
And could the museum be[br]an agent of cultural diplomacy?

0:04:01.202,0:04:06.239
There are over 180 embassies[br]in Washington D.C.

0:04:06.263,0:04:09.226
There are over 500 think tanks.

0:04:09.250,0:04:10.726
There should be a way

0:04:10.750,0:04:13.643
of harnessing all of that intellectual[br]and global energy

0:04:13.667,0:04:15.793
into, and somehow through, the museum.

0:04:15.817,0:04:18.872
There should be some kind of brain trust.

0:04:18.896,0:04:22.184
So the Hirshhorn, as we began[br]to think about it,

0:04:22.208,0:04:24.684
and as we evolved the mission,

0:04:24.708,0:04:26.518
with Richard and his team --

0:04:26.542,0:04:28.643
it's really his life blood.

0:04:28.667,0:04:32.728
But beyond exhibiting contemporary art,

0:04:32.752,0:04:35.518
the Hirshhorn will become a public forum,

0:04:35.542,0:04:37.643
a place of discourse

0:04:37.667,0:04:39.851
for issues around arts,

0:04:39.875,0:04:44.934
culture, politics and policy.

0:04:44.958,0:04:48.934
It would have the global reach[br]of the World Economic Forum.

0:04:48.958,0:04:51.816
It would have the interdisciplinarity[br]of the TED Conference.

0:04:51.840,0:04:56.274
It would have the informality[br]of the town square.

0:04:56.298,0:04:58.203
And for this new initiative,

0:04:58.227,0:05:00.018
the Hirshhorn would have to expand

0:05:00.042,0:05:01.395
or appropriate a site

0:05:01.419,0:05:04.289
for a contemporary, deployable structure.

0:05:04.313,0:05:06.028
This is it. This is the Hirshhorn --

0:05:06.052,0:05:09.143
so a 230-foot-diameter concrete doughnut

0:05:09.167,0:05:11.351
designed in the early '70s

0:05:11.375,0:05:13.103
by Gordon Bunshaft.

0:05:13.127,0:05:14.393
It's hulking, it's silent,

0:05:14.417,0:05:16.143
it's cloistered, it's arrogant,

0:05:16.167,0:05:18.476
it's a design challenge.

0:05:18.500,0:05:20.049
Architects love to hate it.

0:05:20.073,0:05:22.059
One redeeming feature

0:05:22.083,0:05:23.768
is it's lifted up off the ground

0:05:23.792,0:05:25.518
and it's got this void,

0:05:25.542,0:05:27.143
and it's got an empty core

0:05:27.167,0:05:30.059
kind of in the spirit and that facade

0:05:30.083,0:05:33.809
very much corporate and federal style.

0:05:33.833,0:05:35.726
And around that space,

0:05:35.750,0:05:37.268
the ring is actually galleries.

0:05:37.292,0:05:39.893
Very, very difficult[br]to mount shows in there.

0:05:39.917,0:05:41.851
When the Hirshhorn opened,

0:05:41.875,0:05:44.161
Ada Louise Huxstable,[br]the New York Times critic,

0:05:44.185,0:05:45.672
had some choice words:

0:05:45.696,0:05:47.474
"Neo-penitentiary modern."

0:05:47.498,0:05:50.333
"A maimed monument and a maimed Mall

0:05:50.357,0:05:51.768
for a maimed collection."

0:05:51.792,0:05:53.524
Almost four decades later,

0:05:53.548,0:05:55.268
how will this building expand

0:05:55.292,0:05:57.297
for a new progressive program?

0:05:57.321,0:05:58.809
Where would it go?

0:05:58.833,0:06:00.051
It can't go in the Mall.

0:06:00.075,0:06:01.308
There is no space there.

0:06:01.332,0:06:02.851
It can't go in the courtyard.

0:06:02.875,0:06:08.059
It's already taken up by landscape[br]and by sculptures.

0:06:08.083,0:06:09.464
Well there's always the hole.

0:06:09.488,0:06:13.976
But how could it take[br]the space of that hole

0:06:14.000,0:06:15.976
and not be buried in it invisibly?

0:06:16.000,0:06:17.726
How could it become iconic?

0:06:17.750,0:06:21.274
And what language would it take?

0:06:21.298,0:06:24.476
The Hirshhorn sits[br]among the Mall's monumental institutions.

0:06:24.500,0:06:27.320
Most are neoclassical, heavy and opaque,

0:06:27.344,0:06:30.118
made of stone or concrete.

0:06:30.142,0:06:32.008
And the question is,

0:06:32.032,0:06:33.424
if one inhabits that space,

0:06:33.448,0:06:36.786
what is the material of the Mall?

0:06:36.810,0:06:39.434
It has to be different[br]from the buildings there.

0:06:39.458,0:06:41.458
It has to be something entirely different.

0:06:41.482,0:06:43.246
It has to be air.

0:06:43.270,0:06:45.768
In our imagination, it has to be light.

0:06:45.792,0:06:47.983
It has to be ephemeral.[br]It has to be formless.

0:06:48.007,0:06:50.007
And it has to be free.

0:06:50.031,0:06:53.541
(Video)

0:07:01.387,0:07:04.494
So this is the big idea.

0:07:04.518,0:07:07.059
It's a giant airbag.

0:07:07.083,0:07:10.714
The expansion takes[br]the shape of its container

0:07:10.738,0:07:12.453
and it oozes out wherever it can --

0:07:12.477,0:07:14.476
the top and sides.

0:07:14.500,0:07:16.226
But more poetically,

0:07:16.250,0:07:18.268
we like to think of the structure

0:07:18.292,0:07:20.340
as inhaling the democratic[br]air of the Mall,

0:07:20.364,0:07:24.101
bringing it into itself.

0:07:24.125,0:07:28.072
The before and the after.

0:07:28.096,0:07:31.226
It was dubbed "the bubble" by the press.

0:07:31.250,0:07:33.768
That was the lounge.

0:07:33.792,0:07:36.730
It's basically one big volume of air

0:07:36.754,0:07:39.018
that just oozes out in every direction.

0:07:39.042,0:07:41.051
The membrane is translucent.

0:07:41.075,0:07:44.740
It's made of silcon-coated glass fiber.

0:07:44.764,0:07:48.832
And it's inflated twice a year[br]for one month at a time.

0:07:48.856,0:07:52.017
This is the view from the inside.

0:07:52.041,0:07:53.863
So you might have been wondering

0:07:53.887,0:07:55.841
how in the world

0:07:55.865,0:07:58.294
did we get this approved[br]by the federal government.

0:07:58.318,0:08:02.174
It had to be approved[br]by actually two agencies.

0:08:02.198,0:08:06.059
And one is there to preserve

0:08:06.083,0:08:08.424
the dignity and sanctity of the Mall.

0:08:08.448,0:08:11.157
I blush whenever I show this.

0:08:11.181,0:08:14.976
It is yours to interpret.

0:08:15.000,0:08:17.018
But one thing I can say

0:08:17.042,0:08:19.476
is that it's a combination

0:08:19.500,0:08:21.726
of iconoclasm

0:08:21.750,0:08:25.353
and adoration.

0:08:25.377,0:08:28.469
There was also some creative[br]interpretation involved.

0:08:28.493,0:08:31.393
The Congressional Buildings Act of 1910

0:08:31.417,0:08:33.351
limits the height of buildings in D.C.

0:08:33.375,0:08:35.309
to 130 feet,

0:08:35.333,0:08:38.184
except for spires, towers,[br]domes and minarets.

0:08:38.208,0:08:42.851
This pretty much exempts monuments[br]of the church and state.

0:08:42.875,0:08:45.976
And the bubble is 153 ft.

0:08:46.000,0:08:48.601
That's the Pantheon next to it.

0:08:48.625,0:08:51.893
It's about 1.2 million cubic[br]feet of compressed air.

0:08:51.917,0:08:53.809
And so we argued it

0:08:53.833,0:08:55.809
on the merits of being a dome.

0:08:55.833,0:08:57.893
So there it is,

0:08:57.917,0:08:59.067
very stately,

0:08:59.091,0:09:02.518
among all the stately[br]buildings in the Mall.

0:09:02.542,0:09:05.559
And while this Hirshhorn[br]is not landmarked,

0:09:05.583,0:09:07.934
it's very, very historically sensitive.

0:09:07.958,0:09:10.309
And so we couldn't really[br]touch its surfaces.

0:09:10.333,0:09:12.048
We couldn't leave any traces behind.

0:09:12.072,0:09:14.226
So we strained it from the edges,

0:09:14.250,0:09:16.351
and we held it by cables.

0:09:16.375,0:09:19.726
It's a study of some bondage techniques,

0:09:19.750,0:09:21.409
which are actually very important

0:09:21.433,0:09:23.334
because it's hit by wind all the time.

0:09:23.358,0:09:25.449
There's one permanent[br]steel ring at the top,

0:09:25.473,0:09:28.164
but it can't be seen[br]from any vantage point on the Mall.

0:09:28.188,0:09:30.351
There are also some restrictions

0:09:30.375,0:09:31.852
about how much it could be lit.

0:09:31.876,0:09:33.893
It glows from within, it's translucent.

0:09:33.917,0:09:37.059
But it can't be more lit than the Capitol

0:09:37.083,0:09:38.476
or some of the monuments.

0:09:38.500,0:09:40.856
So it's down the hierarchy on lighting.

0:09:40.880,0:09:42.976
So it comes to the site twice a year.

0:09:43.000,0:09:45.934
It's taken off the delivery truck.

0:09:45.958,0:09:47.434
It's hoisted.

0:09:47.458,0:09:49.726
And then it's inflated

0:09:49.750,0:09:51.476
with this low-pressure air.

0:09:51.500,0:09:53.453
And then it's restrained with the cables.

0:09:53.477,0:09:56.643
And then it's ballasted[br]with water at the very bottom.

0:09:56.667,0:10:00.768
This is a very strange moment

0:10:00.792,0:10:03.184
where we were asked[br]by the bureaucracy at the Mall

0:10:03.208,0:10:06.393
how much time would it take to install.

0:10:06.417,0:10:09.132
And we said, well the first[br]erection would take one week.

0:10:09.156,0:10:12.476
And they really connected with that idea.

0:10:12.500,0:10:16.476
And then it was really[br]easy all the way through.

0:10:16.500,0:10:20.559
So we didn't really have[br]that many hurdles, I have to say,

0:10:20.583,0:10:22.631
with the government[br]and all the authorities.

0:10:22.655,0:10:24.179
But some of the toughest hurdles

0:10:24.203,0:10:25.684
have been the technical ones.

0:10:25.708,0:10:26.976
This is the warp and weft.

0:10:27.000,0:10:29.018
This is a point cloud.

0:10:29.042,0:10:31.143
There are extreme pressures.

0:10:31.167,0:10:32.929
This is a very, very unusual building

0:10:32.953,0:10:34.851
in that there's no gravity load,

0:10:34.875,0:10:36.590
but there's load in every direction.

0:10:36.614,0:10:41.143
And I'm just going to zip[br]through these slides.

0:10:41.167,0:10:44.268
And this is the space in action.

0:10:44.292,0:10:47.101
So flexible interior for discussions,

0:10:47.125,0:10:49.434
just like this, but in the round --

0:10:49.458,0:10:50.893
luminous and reconfigurable.

0:10:50.917,0:10:53.309
Could be used for anything,

0:10:53.333,0:10:55.059
for performances, films,

0:10:55.083,0:10:57.601
for installations.

0:10:57.625,0:11:00.018
And the very first program

0:11:00.042,0:11:02.233
will be one of cultural[br]dialogue and diplomacy

0:11:02.257,0:11:03.518
organized in partnership

0:11:03.542,0:11:06.143
with the Council on Foreign Relations.

0:11:06.167,0:11:07.893
Form and content are together here.

0:11:07.917,0:11:10.559
The bubble is an anti-monument.

0:11:10.583,0:11:13.101
The ideals of participatory democracy

0:11:13.125,0:11:15.226
are represented through suppleness

0:11:15.250,0:11:16.672
rather than rigidity.

0:11:16.696,0:11:18.101
Art and politics

0:11:18.125,0:11:21.741
occupy an ambiguous site[br]outside the museum walls,

0:11:21.765,0:11:25.334
but inside of the museum's core,

0:11:25.358,0:11:27.184
blending its air

0:11:27.208,0:11:29.551
with the democratic air of the Mall.

0:11:29.575,0:11:35.101
And the bubble will inflate

0:11:35.125,0:11:36.726
hopefully for the first time

0:11:36.750,0:11:38.934
at the end of 2013.

0:11:38.958,0:11:41.434
Thank you.

0:11:41.458,0:11:44.458
(Applause)