Open/Closed

ROOMS/CORRIDORS

2020

Corridors flanked by independent booths on all sides have characterized the spatial configuration of trade shows since their modern inception in 1851 at the Crystal Palace in London, UK. Prior to the modern corridor, circulation occupied a series of interconnected rooms. The most desirable room had the greatest number of circulatory openings, an essential to the experience and inhabitation of the room themselves. For the 2019 Design Milk Stand at the Interior Design Show in Toronto, we reshaped the typical trade show experience by rethinking the relationship between the booth and corridor; and between the wall and circulation. The design reimagined and recombined walls, openings, and paths by producing a series of corridor-ish rooms or room-ish corridors. In this scenario, the movement through the space is the primary experience, bringing ‘traffic’ into the booth through a non-hierarchical and democratic process that allows visitors to move freely through the interconnected rooms/corridors.

Faculty

Jonathon Anderson
Linda Zhang

Students

Willow Baker Jones
Monica BeckettAmy Yan
Margarita Yushina

Materials

MDF
Plywood torsion box
Vinyl

Size

50’×20’×10’

Fabrication Technique

50’×20 booth subdivided with a 10’×10’ diagonal grid. Openings were subtracted at wall intersections. Walls were fabricated by CNC cutting a torsion box system that was skinned in 1/4" MDF. All walls were screwed to an ‘x’ shape unit that structurally reinforces and ties together the system and provides for the numerous openings.

Date

Oct 2018 – Jan 2019

Location

Interior Design Show in Toronto, Canada

Funding

Interior Design Show, TorontoDesign Milk Stand
Ryerson University School of Interior Design

Collaborator

Jonathon Anderson