“The Sixth Sphere” is the inaugural exhibition curated by Brittany Utting at Huston’s Rice Architecture at Rice University.
“The Sixth Sphere” explores how design can participate in systems of planetary interdependence and reciprocity. Gathering the contributions of 18 practices from around the world, projects are organized around three frameworks for understanding the relationship between the built environment and the technosphere: the molecular, the machinic, and the metabolic. The molecular explores the technosphere’s material worlds, the machinic reimagines the mechanisms by which it transforms the environment, and the metabolic examines the flows of resources that drive its processes. Through speculative designs, images, and drawings, The Sixth Sphere positions the technosphere as a collective site to reconstruct our social, technical, and climate futures.
The newly commissioned drawing for this exhibition depicts the territorial model of ‘Pilbara Interregnum: Seven Political Allegories’, originally commissioned for the 18th Biennale Architettura 2023, ‘The Laboratory of the Future’, curated by Lesley Lokko.
Exhibitors: (AB)NORMAL, aldayjover architecture and landscape, Alexandra Arènes, Andrés Jaque / OFFPOLINN + Miguel Mesa del Castillo, Debbie Chen, Common Accounts, DESIGN EARTH, Dogma, GRANDEZA STUDIO, HOME-OFFICE, Olalekan Jeyifous, Studio Muoto, NEMESTUDIO, Present Future, Curtis Roth, TAKK, Territorial Agency, Z4A Architects.
Graphic Design: Studio Lin.
Sponsors of the exhibition: Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Rice University Office of Research.
