Image source- MOMA. Ray Tomlinson. @. 1971. In 1971, Tomlinson chose the little-used @ sign for his first e-mail, thus retrieving the @ sign from its relative obscurity.

Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, is known for her daring collection approach. She is always pushing the envelope in shaping the MoMA Collection. In her view, building the collection is less about objects, but instead about concepts. These concepts are often not static but changing, such as the programming of a website, interactive display or the latest acquisition, the @ sign.

Image Source: NYtimes.com The @ sign as on the keyboard

Entering the Collection for free, the @ sign, with a long history and origin unknown, is more an idea than object.  While for centuries the @ sign was relegated to a little-used accounting symbol, the @ sign was reappropriated in the 1970s for the first email, thus launching its return.

Image source- MOMA. The @ symbol used in a 1536 letter from an Italian merchant

The @ sign acquisition, approved with near unanimity by MoMA’s acquisitions committee, should have no problem moving to Paola’s next coup–adding a 747 jet to the collection. Antonelli imagines one day that people could fly on actually operating MoMA jets– complete with MoMA boarding passes, novel cabin designs and undoubtedly an educational and provocative experience. And we’ll probably never look at this little @ sign in the same way ever again.

Read more about @ at  MoMA Inside/Out Blog and the NYTimes article

The first view upon entering the studio of SHoP Architects is a wall full of model airplanes. These airplanes visualize the firm’s overarching philosophy of “performance-based design”, in which form maximizes the capabilities of a building. While performance-based design is second-nature in the aviation and automotive industries, it is a rare stance amongst architecture firms.

Hangil Book House, Seoul, Korea

SHoP Architects, a New York-based firm founded in 1996, had their first big break in 2000, winning the inaugural PS.1/MoMA’s young architects program. Since then, their projects have become increasingly complex. They are currently developing a two-mile waterfront park along New York’s East River and a campus center for the Fashion Institute of Technology.

One of the five SHoP principles, George Pasquarelli discusses the fundamental difference in SHoP’s approach, starting with drawings. Traditional plan, section and elevation drawings ignore the fourth dimension–time. Instead, SHoP works with the temporal, investigating how the building grows into being.

Mitchell Park-Camera Obscura, Greenport, NY

Using this exciting concept of organic building, SHoP generates design based upon how a building is actually made. Pre-fabrication–oft a cringe factor of surburban sprawl– is actually part of the process. For their Mitchell Park, Camera Obscura project, each piece of the structure is developed and cut by computers, then delivered to contractors. The computers hit such an accuracy that any misfitting pieces on the construction site are due to errors that can be systematically traced back to the moment of slippage. From this stance, SHoP’s drawings actually teach contractors how to build.

FIT C2 Building, New York, NY

They’re also at the forefront of building technology, partnering with the US Department of Energy and universities. For example, the firm is working on an active prototype for energy collection where solar panels would not be expanses of heavy panels, but would be transparent and used for the entire skin of a building. When they use this technology in the FIT project, the building’s energy performance would soar. Their studio continually questions conventional architectural wisdom.

“Facades are lazy,” challenges Principal Gregg Pasquarelli. “What will architecture look like if a facade is active?”

The use of technology in construction and pre-fab has incredibly exciting implications for the future of building. Complete kits for shelters could be deployed by UNHCR for displaced peoples, by war or natural disasters. Hospitals templates could be created and then customized depending on the climate and needs of a place. The best news? Their research, while costly at the onset, actually leads to lower construction rates than conventional methods, says Jonathan Mallie, one of the five principals of SHoP. Progressive building depends on the forward-thinking firms such as SHoP.

On March 8th, 2010, SHoP’s Barclays Center will break ground for construction along Atlantic and Flatbush avenues in Brooklyn, site of one of the busiest interchanges in the city.

Sirous Namazi “Untitled”

Sirous Namazi’s Untitled wall installation of intricate frames of painted enamel steel structures generates ideas of inclusion/exclusion. His work is drawn from his early years living in Stockholm. The director of the Galerie Nordenhake explained how as an immigrant from Iran, the artist lived within close confines that would later influence his works.

Super-craft: Brian Dettmer’s intricate reliefs carved from books, at PULSE MIAMI

Thomas Glassford

Mexican-based American artist Glassford shows from the Houston-based gallery named Sicardi. Glassford, a former architect, has a craftsman’s approach and a meticulous interest in everyday objects. This energized “arte povera” work made from abandoned broomsticks underlines Glassford’s point: that people don’t easily let go of such a palpable symbol of sweat and toil, time and passage. His search for meaning in the everyday objects that we can and can’t throw away takes him back to the streets of Mexico City, where his scavenges will surely yield new insights.

Manuel Rivera