I am excited to start the academic year teaching another cohort of students at the Architectural Association School of Architecture how to make reliefs. In my third year teaching at the Architectural Association, we are delving deeper into the Zero Art Movement, exploring sculptures by Italian artists Turi Smeti and Enrico Castellani.
In previous years, students were inspired by the Zero Art Movement creating dynamic reliefs. The cover of this blog post was sculpted by Beatrix Stork who studied Castelliani's White surface artwork. The relief demonstrates an exciting interplay of light and shadow.
In architecture, reliefs are made to decorate buildings. Other times, relief-making practices inspire the design of tiles. In my course, students study design and principles of composition through this sculpting approach. They learn advanced fabrication techniques and develop their design and architectural language through experimentation.
Alongside the Zero Art Movement, we will continue to look at Isamu Noguchi, a Japanese American landscape architect and artist. In Contoured Playground, Noguchi designed a safe playground, retaining an element of imagination while creating a safe environment. The two pictures below are White Surface by Castellani (credits to Dortheum) and 9 Ovali Bianci by Smeti (credit to Artsy).
