Luis Urculo’s Architecture With Objects

By Sophie Coleman / December 12th, 2011 in Art / Madrid / 369 views

You’ll never look at the kitchen knife, napkin, bowls, books or other seemingly banal, commonplace items in the same way again after watching Spanish architect prodigy Luis Urculo‘s latest video, Covers, where he uses humble everyday objects to recreate some of the most lauded structures from all over the world.

In this short video, we see a model carefully place and curate a collection of objects, such as a stack of ceramic bowls to replicate the iconic curving ribbon structure of famed Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York, or an arrangement of classic books to echo the distinctive strong horizontal and vertical lines for his equally famous Falling Water house—not forgetting a brown wig for the river. Other iconic structures to get the Covers treatment include the Wozocos apartments in Amsterdam (via old cassette tapes and matchboxes), New York’s boxy shaped futuristic New Museum (stereos) and Chicago landmarks—John Hancock Center (black books/magazines and candles) and the Sears Center (knives and wooden picks).

This reflects Urculo’s trademark fascination for deconstructing architecture—taking the processes, styles and composition and how these can be manipulated to create new environments and experiences. With previous projects for ABSOLUT Lab and Phillipe Starck, his work and blog are definitely worth a peek.

It’s a treat for architecture and design buffs and all in all, a great reminder that creativity and beauty can stem from the simplest things in life.