SKIN
The SKIN Free Lab, designed and built by students, is a vibrant window display created as a temporary exhibition.
Led by Professor Michael Putman and in collaboration with Fathom Studio and Sidewalk Real Estate Development, the exhibition showcases the creative aspects of adaptive reuse to the public, exhibiting students' academic explorations alongside professional realizations.
During August 2024, SKIN will inhabit space on the ground floor suite of the Agency Arts Lofts in downtown Halifax. The display, which showcases academic and professional manifestations of adaptive reuse building design, aims to highlight to viewers the opportunity for buildings to outlive their intended purpose.聽
SKIN came about as a result of the recently completed academic adaptive reuse design studio "Sanctum-Circus," a graduate studio that explored the aspects of adaptively reusing St. Matthew's United Church in Halifax.聽
This process began with an in-depth interpretative analysis followed by an exploration of the design process, which led to a proposal representing a body of work that reimagined the possibilities within adaptive reuse, examining the tensions between the new and old.
From there, students designed a container to display their project work. They had to consider adjacencies and groupings, affinities and families of studies, the chronology of the process, etc. The containers, designed to close like a crate for ease of transport, open up to reveal the design evolution of their proposal and process.
The exhibition will be on display until the end of the month.