. . . ADhouse . . .
ADvertisement billboards have become an omnipotent visual and spatial products of the contemporary metropolis. Colonizing façades, rooftops, construction sites, streets, highways, interiors, blind walls, or any other available spaces, they clearly emphasize the changing conditions of Chinese cities and the shift from a production paradigm to a consumption one. Advocating bright futures in wealthy slick cities, the large scale images sell the phantasmagorical fiction within the tough reality of the city. How could we activate those urban stages, how could we inhabit behind or within the images ?
ADhouse, built in Get It Louder biennale in Shanghai, is an ever constructing / deconstructing architecture, a trans-form installation, a critical manifesto about plurality and mutations of urban artifacts. The installation proposes a new type of infrastructure demonstrating the potential of developing hybrid billboards combining living spaces and advertisement surface.
:: Closed ::
The architectural parasite is being clandestinely reinvested by architecture. Behind the advertisement panel, backstage are re-activated, re-inhabited, the billboard is transforming into a temporary living space Squeezed within the 1.2 m wide framework, outdoor shared spaces and private living cells are organizing themselves behind the decor.
:: Open door policy ( back- to front-stage)::
The ADhouse is transformed in a public architectural installation. Opening up in multiple ways, the whole structure becomes a collective infrastructure for gathering, exhibitions, outdoor cinema, etc… a space for events and eventualities. A terrace unfolds, furniture appear, the kitchen opens out, staircases unveil, the public is invited to climb up, wander in the structure and visit the cells transformed into micro-galleries displaying art works.
Eventually, as if the city of spectacles was taking its revanche on the subversive element, the Adhouse was subdued. The billboard's sponsors, the management of the shopping district where the ADhouse was built, forbid the public to enter the structure and decided to use it as a stage and backdrop for fashion shows and commercial events for more than a year after the exhibition.
BaO kept busy on hybrid billboards projects on a bigger scale,
check the ADblocks !
Branding (in) the city , an essay on "images in the city", was distributed in Get It Louder 2007 Beijing. Download the prospectus (pdf) here:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .