The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) announced Silent Disco by Los Angeles-based architecture firm Barbara Bestor Architecture, on view in the SCI-Arc Gallery from April 1 through June 26, 2011. Architecture students are the "imagined" client for this temporary disco installation. Providing respite from the institutional production of architecture with a lightly hedonistic program, Silent Disco aims to support social and communal experiences. The architectural project here is not limited to the execution of a design and its special effects, but a framework to encourage visual, physical and social pleasure. The design of the structure is an overscaled, unfolded demi-dodecahedron model that contains a strong graphic interface.
"We are always interested in Southern California as both the site and subject of architecture and culture production," said founding Principal Barbara Bestor, a SCI-Arc alumnus (M.Arch '92) and the chair of the new Graduate School of Architecture at Woodbury University. "The Silent Disco for SCI-Arc is a nightlife, student-oriented component of our larger project-making architecture that enables people to interact and experience 'strange beauty' in their environments."
In addition to a discussion with architect Barbara Bestor and SCI-Arc Director Eric Owen Moss on April 8, there will be two DJ disco dance party nights in conjunction with the installation - 'Disco Silencio' on April 1 and 'Disco Callado' on April 22. However, the title 'Silent Disco' refers to both the less populated hours of the gallery-when the environment might be experienced by a student or two seeking relief from their computer screens- and to the space itself, when it is unplugged but still dancing.