0:00:00.108,0:00:03.511
We conventionally divide space

0:00:03.511,0:00:05.057
into private and public realms,

0:00:05.073,0:00:08.340
and we know these legal distinctions very well

0:00:08.340,0:00:10.348
because we've become experts

0:00:10.348,0:00:14.208
at protecting our private property and private space.

0:00:14.208,0:00:16.112
But we're less attuned

0:00:16.112,0:00:19.667
to the nuances of the public.

0:00:19.667,0:00:23.575
What translates generic public space into qualitative space?

0:00:23.590,0:00:24.996
I mean, this is something

0:00:24.996,0:00:26.821
that our studio has been working on

0:00:26.821,0:00:28.329
for the past decade.

0:00:28.329,0:00:30.289
And we're doing this through some case studies.

0:00:30.289,0:00:32.081
A large chunk of our work

0:00:32.081,0:00:33.621
has been put into transforming

0:00:33.621,0:00:36.417
this neglected industrial ruin

0:00:36.417,0:00:39.490
into a viable post-industrial space

0:00:39.490,0:00:40.733
that looks forward and backward

0:00:40.733,0:00:41.679
at the same time.

0:00:41.679,0:00:44.754
And another huge chunk of our work

0:00:44.754,0:00:46.792
has gone into making relevant

0:00:46.792,0:00:49.488
a site that's grown out of sync with its time.

0:00:49.488,0:00:52.532
We've been working on democratizing Lincoln Center

0:00:52.532,0:00:56.250
for a public that doesn't usually have $300

0:00:56.250,0:01:00.015
to spend on an opera ticket.

0:01:00.015,0:01:01.706
So we've been eating, drinking,

0:01:01.706,0:01:04.000
thinking, living public space

0:01:04.000,0:01:05.971
for quite a long time.

0:01:05.971,0:01:08.240
And it's taught us really one thing,

0:01:08.240,0:01:12.208
and that is to truly make good public space,

0:01:12.208,0:01:15.458
you have to erase the distinctions

0:01:15.458,0:01:18.083
between architecture, urbanism,

0:01:18.083,0:01:19.958
landscape, media design

0:01:19.958,0:01:21.542
and so on.

0:01:21.542,0:01:23.571
It really goes beyond distinction.

0:01:23.571,0:01:26.625
Now we're moving onto Washington, D.C.

0:01:26.625,0:01:28.958
and we're working on another transformation,

0:01:28.958,0:01:31.583
and that is for the existing Hirshhorn Museum

0:01:31.583,0:01:33.208
that's sited

0:01:33.208,0:01:35.500
on the most revered public space in America,

0:01:35.500,0:01:38.433
the National Mall.

0:01:38.433,0:01:40.000
The Mall is a symbol

0:01:40.000,0:01:42.833
of American democracy.

0:01:42.833,0:01:45.833
And what's fantastic is that this symbol

0:01:45.833,0:01:48.042
is not a thing, it's not an image,

0:01:48.042,0:01:49.750
it's not an artifact,

0:01:49.750,0:01:51.458
actually it's a space,

0:01:51.458,0:01:54.308
and it's kind of just defined by a line of buildings

0:01:54.308,0:01:56.339
on either side.

0:01:56.339,0:02:00.083
It's a space where citizens can voice their discontent

0:02:00.083,0:02:01.042
and show their power.

0:02:01.042,0:02:04.292
It's a place where pivotal moments in American history

0:02:04.292,0:02:06.448
have taken place.

0:02:06.448,0:02:08.854
And they're inscribed in there forever --

0:02:08.854,0:02:11.233
like the march on Washington for jobs and freedom

0:02:11.233,0:02:14.325
and the great speech that Martin Luther King gave there.

0:02:14.325,0:02:18.708
The Vietnam protests, the commemoration of all that died

0:02:18.708,0:02:20.750
in the pandemic of AIDS,

0:02:20.750,0:02:23.292
the march for women's reproductive rights,

0:02:23.292,0:02:26.750
right up until almost the present.

0:02:26.750,0:02:29.912
The Mall is the greatest civic stage

0:02:29.912,0:02:33.583
in this country for dissent.

0:02:33.583,0:02:37.471
And it's synonymous with free speech,

0:02:37.471,0:02:39.958
even if you're not sure what it is that you have to say.

0:02:39.958,0:02:45.192
It may just be a place for civic commiseration.

0:02:45.192,0:02:48.833
There is a huge disconnect, we believe,

0:02:48.833,0:02:53.000
between the communicative and discursive space of the Mall

0:02:53.000,0:02:57.042
and the museums that line it to either side.

0:02:57.042,0:03:00.667
And that is that those museums are usually passive,

0:03:00.667,0:03:04.042
they have passive relationships between the museum

0:03:04.042,0:03:05.667
as the presenter and the audience,

0:03:05.667,0:03:07.958
as the receiver of information.

0:03:07.958,0:03:09.708
And so you can see dinosaurs

0:03:09.708,0:03:13.792
and insects and collections of locomotives

0:03:13.792,0:03:14.792
and all of that,

0:03:14.792,0:03:16.542
but you're really not involved;

0:03:16.542,0:03:18.292
you're being talked to.

0:03:18.292,0:03:22.995
When Richard Koshalek took over as director of the Hirshhorn

0:03:22.995,0:03:24.792
in 2009,

0:03:24.792,0:03:27.208
he was determined to take advantage

0:03:27.208,0:03:30.458
of the fact that this museum was sited

0:03:30.458,0:03:32.208
at the most unique place:

0:03:32.208,0:03:34.083
at the seat of power in the U.S.

0:03:34.083,0:03:36.292
And while art and politics

0:03:36.292,0:03:41.750
are inherently and implicitly together always and all the time,

0:03:41.750,0:03:45.917
there could be some very special relationship

0:03:45.917,0:03:49.833
that could be forged here in its uniqueness.

0:03:49.833,0:03:52.458
The question is, is it possible ultimately

0:03:52.458,0:03:54.208
for art to insert itself

0:03:54.208,0:03:57.333
into the dialogue of national and world affairs?

0:03:57.333,0:04:01.202
And could the museum be an agent of cultural diplomacy?

0:04:01.202,0:04:06.263
There are over 180 embassies in Washington D.C.

0:04:06.263,0:04:09.250
There are over 500 think tanks.

0:04:09.250,0:04:10.750
There should be a way

0:04:10.750,0:04:13.667
of harnessing all of that intellectual and global energy

0:04:13.667,0:04:15.817
into, and somehow through, the museum.

0:04:15.817,0:04:18.896
There should be some kind of brain trust.

0:04:18.896,0:04:22.208
So the Hirshhorn, as we began to think about it,

0:04:22.208,0:04:24.708
and as we evolved the mission,

0:04:24.708,0:04:26.542
with Richard and his team --

0:04:26.542,0:04:28.667
it's really his life blood.

0:04:28.667,0:04:32.752
But beyond exhibiting contemporary art,

0:04:32.752,0:04:35.542
the Hirshhorn will become a public forum,

0:04:35.542,0:04:37.667
a place of discourse

0:04:37.667,0:04:39.875
for issues around arts,

0:04:39.875,0:04:44.958
culture, politics and policy.

0:04:44.958,0:04:48.958
It would have the global reach of the World Economic Forum.

0:04:48.958,0:04:51.500
It would have the interdisciplinarity of the TED Conference.

0:04:51.500,0:04:56.298
It would have the informality of the town square.

0:04:56.298,0:04:58.227
And for this new initiative,

0:04:58.227,0:05:00.042
the Hirshhorn would have to expand

0:05:00.042,0:05:01.419
or appropriate a site

0:05:01.419,0:05:04.313
for a contemporary, deployable structure.

0:05:04.313,0:05:06.000
This is it. This is the Hirshhorn --

0:05:06.000,0:05:09.167
so a 230-foot-diameter concrete doughnut

0:05:09.167,0:05:11.375
designed in the early '70s

0:05:11.375,0:05:13.127
by Gordon Bunshaft.

0:05:13.127,0:05:14.417
It's hulking, it's silent,

0:05:14.417,0:05:16.167
it's cloistered, it's arrogant,

0:05:16.167,0:05:18.500
it's a design challenge.

0:05:18.500,0:05:20.073
Architects love to hate it.

0:05:20.073,0:05:22.083
One redeeming feature

0:05:22.083,0:05:23.792
is it's lifted up off the ground

0:05:23.792,0:05:25.542
and it's got this void,

0:05:25.542,0:05:27.167
and it's got an empty core

0:05:27.167,0:05:30.083
kind of in the spirit and that facade

0:05:30.083,0:05:33.833
very much corporate and federal style.

0:05:33.833,0:05:35.750
And around that space,

0:05:35.750,0:05:37.292
the ring is actually galleries.

0:05:37.292,0:05:39.917
Very, very difficult to mount shows in there.

0:05:39.917,0:05:41.875
When the Hirshhorn opened,

0:05:41.875,0:05:43.719
Ada Louise Huxstable, the New York Times critic,

0:05:43.719,0:05:45.696
had some choice words:

0:05:45.696,0:05:47.498
"Neo-penitentiary modern."

0:05:47.498,0:05:50.357
"A maimed monument and a maimed Mall

0:05:50.357,0:05:51.792
for a maimed collection."

0:05:51.792,0:05:53.548
Almost four decades later,

0:05:53.548,0:05:55.292
how will this building expand

0:05:55.292,0:05:57.321
for a new progressive program?

0:05:57.321,0:05:58.833
Where would it go?

0:05:58.833,0:05:59.875
It can't go in the Mall.

0:05:59.875,0:06:01.125
There is no space there.

0:06:01.125,0:06:02.875
It can't go in the courtyard.

0:06:02.875,0:06:08.083
It's already taken up by landscape and by sculptures.

0:06:08.083,0:06:09.458
Well there's always the hole.

0:06:09.458,0:06:14.000
But how could it take the space of that hole

0:06:14.000,0:06:16.000
and not be buried in it invisibly?

0:06:16.000,0:06:17.750
How could it become iconic?

0:06:17.750,0:06:21.298
And what language would it take?

0:06:21.298,0:06:24.500
The Hirshhorn sits among the Mall's momumental institutions.

0:06:24.500,0:06:27.344
Most are neoclassical, heavy and opaque,

0:06:27.344,0:06:30.142
made of stone or concrete.

0:06:30.142,0:06:32.032
And the question is,

0:06:32.032,0:06:33.448
if one inhabits that space,

0:06:33.448,0:06:36.810
what is the material of the Mall?

0:06:36.810,0:06:39.458
It has to be different from the buildings there.

0:06:39.458,0:06:41.470
It has to be something entirely different.

0:06:41.470,0:06:43.270
It has to be air.

0:06:43.270,0:06:45.792
In our imagination, it has to be light.

0:06:45.792,0:06:47.625
It has to be ephemeral. It has to be formless.

0:06:47.625,0:06:50.031
And it has to be free.

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

0:07:01.387,0:07:04.518
So this is the big idea.

0:07:04.518,0:07:07.083
It's a giant airbag.

0:07:07.083,0:07:10.738
The expansion takes the shape of its container

0:07:10.738,0:07:12.477
and it oozes out wherever it can --

0:07:12.477,0:07:14.500
the top and sides.

0:07:14.500,0:07:16.250
But more poetically,

0:07:16.250,0:07:18.292
we like to think of the structure

0:07:18.292,0:07:20.042
as inhaling the democratic air of the Mall,

0:07:20.042,0:07:24.125
bringing it into itself.

0:07:24.125,0:07:28.096
The before and the after.

0:07:28.096,0:07:31.250
It was dubbed "the bubble" by the press.

0:07:31.250,0:07:33.792
That was the lounge.

0:07:33.792,0:07:36.754
It's basically one big volume of air

0:07:36.754,0:07:39.042
that just oozes out in every direction.

0:07:39.042,0:07:41.075
The membrane is translucent.

0:07:41.075,0:07:44.764
It's made of silcon-coated glass fiber.

0:07:44.764,0:07:48.856
And it's inflated twice a year for one month at a time.

0:07:48.856,0:07:52.041
This is the view from the inside.

0:07:52.041,0:07:53.887
So you might have been wondering

0:07:53.887,0:07:55.865
how in the world

0:07:55.865,0:07:57.958
did we get this approved by the federal government.

0:07:57.958,0:08:02.198
It had to be approved by actually two agencies.

0:08:02.198,0:08:06.083
And one is there to preserve

0:08:06.083,0:08:08.448
the dignity and sanctity of the Mall.

0:08:08.448,0:08:11.181
I blush whenever I show this.

0:08:11.181,0:08:15.000
It is yours to interpret.

0:08:15.000,0:08:17.042
But one thing I can say

0:08:17.042,0:08:19.500
is that it's a combination

0:08:19.500,0:08:21.750
of iconoclasm

0:08:21.750,0:08:25.377
and adoration.

0:08:25.377,0:08:28.493
There was also some creative interpretation involved.

0:08:28.493,0:08:31.417
The Congressional Buildings Act of 1910

0:08:31.417,0:08:33.375
limits the height of buildings in D.C.

0:08:33.375,0:08:35.333
to 130 feet,

0:08:35.333,0:08:38.208
except for spires, towers, domes and minarettes.

0:08:38.208,0:08:42.875
This pretty much exempts monuments of the church and state.

0:08:42.875,0:08:46.000
And the bubble is 153 ft.

0:08:46.000,0:08:48.625
That's the Pantheon next to it.

0:08:48.625,0:08:51.917
It's about 1.2 million cubic feet of compressed air.

0:08:51.917,0:08:53.833
And so we argued it

0:08:53.833,0:08:55.833
on the merits of being a dome.

0:08:55.833,0:08:57.917
So there it is,

0:08:57.917,0:08:59.000
very stately,

0:08:59.000,0:09:02.542
among all the stately buildings in the Mall.

0:09:02.542,0:09:05.583
And while this Hirshhorn is not landmarked,

0:09:05.583,0:09:07.958
it's very, very historically sensitive.

0:09:07.958,0:09:10.333
And so we couldn't really touch its surfaces.

0:09:10.333,0:09:12.000
We couldn't leave any traces behind.

0:09:12.000,0:09:14.250
So we strained it from the edges,

0:09:14.250,0:09:16.375
and we held it by cables.

0:09:16.375,0:09:19.750
It's a study of some bondage techniques,

0:09:19.750,0:09:21.333
which are actually very, very important

0:09:21.333,0:09:22.958
because it's hit by wind all the time.

0:09:22.958,0:09:24.833
There's one permanent steel ring at the top,

0:09:24.833,0:09:27.875
but it can't be seen from any vantage point on the Mall.

0:09:27.875,0:09:30.375
There are also some restrictions

0:09:30.375,0:09:31.875
about how much it could be lit.

0:09:31.875,0:09:33.917
It glows from within, it's translucent.

0:09:33.917,0:09:37.083
But it can't be more lit than the Capitol

0:09:37.083,0:09:38.500
or some of the monuments.

0:09:38.500,0:09:39.000
So it's down the hierarchy on lighting.

0:09:39.000,0:09:43.000
So it comes to the site twice a year.

0:09:43.000,0:09:45.958
It's taken off the delivery truck.

0:09:45.958,0:09:47.458
It's hoisted.

0:09:47.458,0:09:49.750
And then it's inflated

0:09:49.750,0:09:51.500
with this low-pressure air.

0:09:51.500,0:09:52.958
And then it's restrained with the cables.

0:09:52.958,0:09:56.667
And then it's ballasted with water at the very bottom.

0:09:56.667,0:10:00.792
This is a very strange moment

0:10:00.792,0:10:03.208
where we were asked by the bureaucracy at the Mall

0:10:03.208,0:10:06.417
how much time would it take to install.

0:10:06.417,0:10:09.000
And we said, well the first erection would take one week.

0:10:09.000,0:10:12.500
And they really connected with that idea.

0:10:12.500,0:10:16.500
And then it was really easy all the way through.

0:10:16.500,0:10:20.583
So we didn't really have that many hurdles, I have to say,

0:10:20.583,0:10:22.583
with the government and all the authorities.

0:10:22.583,0:10:24.083
But some of the toughest hurdles

0:10:24.083,0:10:25.708
have been the technical ones.

0:10:25.708,0:10:27.000
This is the warp and weft.

0:10:27.000,0:10:29.042
This is a point cloud.

0:10:29.042,0:10:31.167
There are extreme pressures.

0:10:31.167,0:10:32.667
This is a very, very unusual building

0:10:32.667,0:10:34.875
in that there's no gravity load,

0:10:34.875,0:10:36.583
but there's load in every direction.

0:10:36.583,0:10:41.167
And I'm just going to zip through these slides.

0:10:41.167,0:10:44.292
And this is the space in action.

0:10:44.292,0:10:47.125
So flexible interior for discussions,

0:10:47.125,0:10:49.458
just like this, but in the round --

0:10:49.458,0:10:50.917
luminous and reconfigurable.

0:10:50.917,0:10:53.333
Could be used for anything,

0:10:53.333,0:10:55.083
for performances, films,

0:10:55.083,0:10:57.625
for installations.

0:10:57.625,0:11:00.042
And the very first program

0:11:00.042,0:11:01.792
will be one of cultural dialogue and diplomacy

0:11:01.792,0:11:03.542
organized in partnership

0:11:03.542,0:11:06.167
with the Council on Foreign Relations.

0:11:06.167,0:11:07.917
Form and content are together here.

0:11:07.917,0:11:10.583
The bubble is an anti-monument.

0:11:10.583,0:11:13.125
The ideals of participatory democracy

0:11:13.125,0:11:15.250
are represented through suppleness

0:11:15.250,0:11:16.696
rather than rigidity.

0:11:16.696,0:11:18.125
Art and politics

0:11:18.125,0:11:21.765
occupy an ambiguous site outside the museum walls,

0:11:21.765,0:11:25.358
but inside of the museum's core,

0:11:25.358,0:11:27.208
blending its air

0:11:27.208,0:11:29.575
with the democratic air of the Mall.

0:11:29.575,0:11:35.125
And the bubble will inflate

0:11:35.125,0:11:36.750
hopefully for the first time

0:11:36.750,0:11:38.958
at the end of 2013.

0:11:38.958,0:11:41.458
Thank you.

0:11:41.458,9:59:59.000
(Applause)