This exhibition features the work of Diana Agrest and Mario Gandelsonas through drawings, models, photographs, and ephemera highlighting eighteen projects from 1975 through 2010. These projects include Design as Reading, Roosevelt Island, New York City, 1975; Object as Fabric, Typological Morphing, Park Square, Boston, 1978; A Critical Reading of the Urban Text, Les Halles, Paris, 1980; Urban Ready-Mades, Goose Island, Chicago, Illinois, 1989; and Fabric Transformations, Midtown Manhattan West, New York City, 2003 among others, as well as work developed by Diana Agrest and Mario Gandelsonas individually. The exhibition is an expansion of Fabric Object, an exhibition that originated at Princeton University’s School of Architecture in 2024 by architect, educator, and curator Michael Meredith. 

Diana Agrest, an architect and professor at The Cooper Union, is widely recognized for her critical approach to architecture developed through theory, practice, and pedagogy. Her work explores the complex relationship between architecture, culture, and social context. Mario Gandelsonas, an architect and professor at Princeton University, is renowned for his exploration of the relationship between architecture and urban form. A distinguished educator, Gandelsonas has published works that examine the intersection of architecture, urbanism, and representation.

Diana Agrest and Mario Gandelsonas are the principals of Agrest and Gandelsonas Architects, known for their collaborative projects and their distinctive ability to work across scales—from urbanism to architecture and interior design—while considering social and cultural issues. In addition to their practice, Agrest and Gandelsonas have made significant contributions to theoretical and critical discourse as they developed new pedagogies. Their work has profoundly influenced contemporary architecture and urbanism by challenging traditional methods, advancing new frameworks, and adopting a transdisciplinary approach that has reimagined the field through critical theory, social science, and environmental studies.

The title of the exhibition refers to an essential aspect of the architects’ work: seeing architecture as the constant interaction of existing spaces, new spaces, and formal configurations. The materials on view reveal how the architects use non-linear representations of space to explore architecture and its interface with human behavior, memory, and society.

Presented by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union.

Exhibition
Thursday, April 10 through Friday, May 2
Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery
Tuesday – Sunday, 12 p.m. – 7 p.m.

Opening Reception 
Thursday, April 10 – 6:30 p.m.