FLUXUS AS ARCHITECTURE
Fluxus Foundation is pleased to announce exhibition series FLUXUS AS ARCHITECTURE,at Fluxus Foundation, 454 W 19th St. New York, NY, 10011.
FLUXUS AS ARCHITECTURE exhibition series intend to reposition the revolutionary relevance of Maciunas’ Universal Structure in the context of today’s urban setting, arguing for an alternative of human habitat, where urban efficiency and social welfare play the leading role.
The first exhibition Universal Structure introduced an innovative building system designed to incorporate all of the modern technological developments in electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as building materials as an integral part, and proposed an adaptive urban system of standardization, modularization and mass-production, which contextualizes architecture design and urban development in a complexity of technology, economy and social welfare.
The second exhibition Fluxhouse Limited Edition demonstrates the mass-customizability of this modular system that lends itself equally all to residential homes, apartment buildings, office buildings, hotels, cultural centers, shopping centers, factories, schools and hospital, etc. After five years’ research and development, Fluxus Foundation initiates the Fluxhouse Limited Edition Licensing Project to realize the system as well as to revitalize the legacy of George Maciunas, an innovative architect/artist who worked with great principle and dedication to construct a more creative way of life for all.
The third exhibition The Chinese Unit – Urban Form For Future China is the happy convergence of Fluxus Foundation’s interdisciplinary commitment, George Maciunas’ intellectual legacy of Universal Structure as a prefabricated building system, and more importantly, the contemporary issues and visions of China’s urbanization. Knowing that challenges and complexities in the economic, political and cultural modernity of China lie well beyond any singular design or research effort, The Chinese Unit exhibition intends to gather collective efforts on this topic, serving as an open source of well-qualified information, arguments and methodologies in response to China’s urbanization. The platform will thrive not only by brainstorming solution but also by raising the quality of debate.
Notes: Fluxus is a global collective of artists, musicians, designers bound by their intermedia sensibility and experimental enlightenment. George Maciunas (1931-1978) is best known as the founder and central coordinator of Fluxus from 1962 until his untimely death in 1978. He was educated in architecture and art history at Cooper Union, Carnegie Institute of Technology, and New York University. As an architect, George Maciunas was credited with the invention of a structural framework and received two patents in 1961. Maciunas Prefabricated Building System was completed and copyrighted in 1965. As an urban planner, the New York Times coined Maciunas’ title as the “Father of SoHo” for his Fluxhouse Cooperatives project. In realizing a vision of architecture based on collective ownership, the Fluxhouse Cooperatives may arguably be Maciunas’ most influential and widely practiced Fluxus project. George Maciunas/Fluxus Foundation is committed to fostering Fluxus scholarship, cultivating Maciunas’ ideas into practical contemporary applications and protecting the Maciunas name in a manner respectful of his original mission.
Fluxus As Architecture Series is curated by Harry Stendhal, Chairman of Fluxus Foundation, New York, and Fanyu Lin, Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in Columbia University.
