Two Towers
Chicago Architecture Biennial 2017
Location : Yates Hall, Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, USA
Office : Productora / CAB
Date : Spring 2017
Dimensions : 16ft Tall
Materials Used : MDF, Bic ballpoint pens
Keywords : Skyscraper, Architectural model, Tribune tower competition, Contextual
Is this large architectural model a scaled version of a possible skyscraper, or rather an up-scaled drawing, an enlarged sketch?
Two Towers is Productora's proposal for the Vertical City exhibit of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. It is intentionally ambiguous to sparked a discussion on the autonomy of architectural drawings and models and about the way architectural ideas are developed simultaneously in different scales and techniques.
Project Description
This project is made up of two similar volumes with different materiality stacked on top of each other to obscure the perceived height of the building. This compositional strategy is based on PRODUCTORA's other competition proposals where these volumes create a totemic urban composition with large terraces of half the volume.
The bic pen drawings by Carlos Bedoya, one of the founder of PRODUCTORA became an important reference to the representational strategy employed for the Biennial entry.
By rendering the huge MDF model in blue & red bic, the project begins to play with the ambiguity of the commission. Are these columns conceived as scale models of previous tower proposal? Are they a sculptural prism in dialogue with fifteen other participants at the Yates Hall? Are they a miniature version of a tower or an enlarged sketch?
Project Team : Wonne Ickx, Carlos Bedoya, Victor Jaime & Abel Perles
Collaborators : Juan Benavides, Paola Aguirre, and 55 other volunteers.
Concept Sketch
By Carlos Bedoya
Test Model
Photo by PRODUCTORA
Fabrication
BIC pen hatching
Final Model
Installed at Yates Hall in the Chicago Cultural Center
Photos by Laurian Ghinitoiu