Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), in collaboration with the COAM Architecture Foundation, opens its latest exhibition in Madrid, which will be inaugurated on April 24, 2019 at COAM. The exhibition can be visited until June 21, 2019. 

Titled Beyond the Structure, the exhibition explores the work behind engineers and architects throughout some of the most important buildings in the world. The visual show is an in-depth survey of SOM’s structural engineering practice and its integration with SOM’s architectural design.

From Munich exhibition. Image © SOM

For more than eight decades, SOM has explored the poetics of structure through continual examination and experimentation. "Beyond the Structure" reveals the concepts and forms that stem from SOM’s integrated practice of engineering and architecture. The exhibition explores the idea that engineers and architects practice a poetry of inquiry, experimentation, and ingenuity.

From the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture. Image © Tom Harris

The centerpiece of the exhibition is an installation of structural models at 1:500 scale putting SOM’s groundbreaking projects on display. The model lineup features some of SOM’s most innovative recent work around the world, including JTI Headquarters in Geneva; Exchange House in London and Hotel Arts in Barcelona, alongside influential and pioneering projects designed throughout the firm’s history, including John Hancock Center (now known as 875 North Michigan Avenue), Sears Tower (now known as Willis Tower), and Burj Khalifa.

From MAK Los Angeles. Image © SOM

Through sketches, concept models, video, and structural models, the exhibition gives insight into SOM’s practice, past and present, as it seeks to address physical and environmental challenges with concise and clarified solutions.

From Aalborg exhibition. Image © Nils Fabaek

New to the traveling exhibition is a 5-by-5-by-3 meters timbrel vault structure, also known as a Catalan vault. Constructed of overlapping bricks and mortar, the vault's design incorporates upturned edges and shape optimization to yield an ultra-light and efficient shell form. The piece exemplifies one of the exhibition's main themes: that the economy of a structure depends on how efficiently it can be constructed.

From the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Image © Tom Harris

The exhibition was initially displayed in Munich, the original concept of the exhibition is based on a special monograph edited by Detail magazine in 2015. 

Since then, its different iterations have been displayed in Hamburg and Cologne; in Aalborg, Denmark; at the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial; as a collateral exhibition of the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture; and, most recently, as a part of MEXTRÓPOLI in Mexico City.

From Aalborg exhibition. Image © Nils Fabaek

From Mexico exhibition. Image © SOM

From Venice Architecture Biennale. Image © Tom Harris

From Hamburg exhibition. Image © AIT

From Aalborg exhibition. Image © Nils Fabaek

From Aalborg exhibition. Image © Nils Fabaek

Throughout the duration of the exhibition, SOM will also present a program of panel discussions, workshops and guided tours with Structural Engineering Partners William F. Baker and Mark Sarkisian, and others from SOM. Additional events and lectures will be scheduled during the run of the exhibition.

Top image: from Mexico exhibition, image © SOM 

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