BURST*008 House - The Museum of Modern Art Home Delivery Exhibit
Summary
BURST*008 House, one of five houses commissioned by MoMA for exhibition, is documented in a series of online videos and an exhibit film which tell its innovative and inspired story from concept to assembly. The films are permanent entries in the MoMA archive.
The Situation
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) selected 5 architecture teams as examples of modern prefabrication and invited them to build their houses on a lot adjecent to the midtown Manhattan museum. Each team was asked to document the process.
Our Approach
We studied the BURST*008 House documents and listened to the architects describe the project. That is, we listened to how they described the project - the subtext behind the concept. We asked about their technical influences and their abstract inspirations. From there we learned about the architectual style and construction approach and, finally, the demanding build schedule ahead of us.
Together, we assembled a reasonable workflow which would allow us to produce a short video every 2 weeks to show intermediate progress while focusing on capturing footage to produce a final film to be shown in the exhibit.
Results
Over a two-month period, we produced several short videos for presentation on the MoMA exhibit website and MoMA's YouTube account showing key steps in the prefabrication process. For these shorts, we experimented with various playful styles, including animation, graphics and nods to the architects' artistic inspirations, while ensuring the videos would be informational to the audience.
For the museum show, we produced a 10 minute documentary showing the amazing delivery and assembly process that occurred on the MoMA lot. As a nod to the rich history of prefabrication, and because we think the assembly is just beautiful to watch, we incorporated a style that is evocative of mid-century construction videos in a way that shows how the use of current technology enables efficiency and flexibility.
The film was projected on a wall inside the house during the exhibit, allowing visitors to watch the house being built while standing inside of it.
