Design CommissionsDesign Commissions

Studio L A (Arna Mačkić and Lorien Beijaert) realised the spatial design of the exhibitions The Hoodie (2019) and Letters to the Mayor (2018).

For Studio L A, the challenge of _The Hoodie_ exhibition was to design a space in which diverse objects and meanings could coalesce in a coherent storyline. "The hoodie is a fashion garment, but it's also a socio-political carrier," Says Arna Mačkić . "To many, the hoodie is a fashion statement or an item of apparel offering comfort and protection. Yet the hooded sweatshirt is tied to politics, too, with black youths in hoodies perceived as 'suspicious' and, in America, even at risk of getting shot. Our design had to communicate that tension between fashion and politics."

Curator Lou Stoppard explored the story of the hooded cotton jersey, bringing together distinct and intersectional themes, Mačkić explains. The exhibition opened with a history of the hoodie from the Middle Ages to the present, then considered the status of the hoodie as a fashion garment, and concluded by addressing the hoodie's political and social significance in the contexts of privacy, racism, and security. "As exhibition designers, we wanted to create a framework that illuminated the multiple narratives and contexts in which such an object derives its meaning," says Lorien Beijaert. "As a fashion must-have, the hoodie cannot be disentangled from the very real risk that the individual wearing it could be shot on sight by police." To communicate all of these possible narratives, Studio L A designed a succession of interior spaces where the historical objects and fashion items were displayed, connected by a continuous exterior space with the works relating to the public domain.

Studio L A chose to work with textile walls, as befits an exhibition about fashion. "We designed a space in which almost everything was ceiling-suspended: the partition walls, the garments, the video screens and paintings, as well as the text panels and captions for the various objects," Beijaert explains. "This created a fluid narrative, easily navigable routing and a visual language that ensured the relationship between inside and outside was maintained throughout. It's important to us that our intervention functions as an autonomous spatial installation as well as an exhibition environment."

"With Studio L A, we use architecture to offer new perspectives on social themes. Our work is about architecture in relation to mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, about the extent to which space is accessible to users," says Mačkić. "Recurring themes are public space, active monuments and space for conversation." Studio L A regularly designs exhibitions in which Mačkić and Beijaert activate layers of content: "Our exhibition designs are always content-driven. That's why it's crucial for us to be able to relate to the ideas and theme."

In _Letters to the Mayor,_ Studio L A designed an intervention in the form of two desks. "Where The Hoodie was designed as a space through which people could move freely, the spatial design of Letters to the Mayor was conceived to invite people to stay," says Beijaert. "Our design consisted of two tables. One held the letters that architects had written to the mayor of Rotterdam in the form of tear-off blocks, so that visitors could take a copy home to read at their leisure. And at the mayor's desk, people could sit down and listen to audio recordings of the letters, which brought them to life."

Studio L A uses the practice of architecture as a device through which to investigate societal issues, phenomena and narratives, and to place them in renewed perspectives. Studio L A projects often relate to mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, refugee issues, collective identity and the public domain. Self-initiated projects, spatial interventions, writing, curating and lecturing are part of L A's working method, aimed at moving towards a more inclusive architecture and new forms of public domain. Their spatial designs do not aspire to be off-the-shelf structures but are allowed to initiate new developments.

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