Exhibition Design for the Canadian Centre for Architecture exhibit 1973: Sorry, Out of Gas

1973: Sorry, Out of Gas.

This major exhibition is the first to study the architectural innovation spurred by the 1973 oil crisis, when the value of oil increased exponentially and triggered economic, political, and social upheaval across the world. Featuring over 350 objects including architectural drawings, photographs, books and pamphlets, archival television footage, and historical artefacts, the exhibition maps the global response to the shortage and its relevance to architecture today.

Occupying the CCA’s main galleries, 1973: Sorry, Out of Gas is designed by Saucier + Perrotte architectes and is curated by Mirko Zardini {CCA Director and Chief Curator} with Giovanna Borasi {CCA Curator of Contemporary Architecture}. The exhibition is organised along interrelated themes, including Austerity, which reflects the impact of the oil crisis on habits and lifestyle. Passive Solar surveys efforts to adjust building design to take advantage of solar heat, while Active Solar addresses the evolution and application of technologies to capture and convert the sun’s energy. Geopolitical Consequences examines the reactions and initiatives in the political, commercial, and cultural realms. Insulation and Underground Buildings presents attempts
to conserve energy and integrate buildings within their natural surroundings; and Wind maps the evolution from earlier wind turbine designs for rural areas to new applications. Finally, Integrated Systems outlines projects that operate on scales of greater complexity involving food production and larger societal groups. Rather than providing a complete historical overview of the period’s research, the materials on view have been selected based on their relevance to contemporary architectural concerns.

For this installation, Saucier + Perrotte architectes designed an elemental, black form that modulates the content of the exhibition through the different galleries of the CCA. As the black shape transforms, linking the gallery spaces, it allows visitors to perceive two different scales of experience. The first is a volumetric play with the formal space of the existing building; the second emerges when visitors are in proximity
to the objects on display: the space and material around each artefact vanish into a black void, allowing the visitor to fully appreciate the significance of each one. The black structure is in essence a large cube that has been deformed into a white space. Its texture evokes dark, oily surfaces. It pierces through the gallery walls and plunges down toward the CCA archive only to re-emerge, displaying what has been found.

On the matte, white walls of the galleries are two-dimensional graphic representations from the period of the energy crisis. In the first galleries are photos that set the mood of the time. In the subsequent galleries, to explain the innovation and technology during the decade, large scale technical drawings are imprinted on the walls, their size and graphic line quality dynamically interacting with the black object as it engages
the exhibition spaces. Simultaneously, these drawings act as the signals for the themes of each gallery.

The constructed horizon that the black object defines through the exhibition anchors the visitors to the subject matter, offering insight into the technological and social responses to the 1973 oil crisis. Its contemporary form incites visitors to question what can be done for today’s energy issues.