Organization: the MIT-Department of
Architecture
Location: MIT Keller Gallery, 77
Mass Ave, 7-408, Cambridge, MA
February 12, 2024 - March 15, 2024.
"In her new monograph, A Form of Practice, Adèle Naudé Santos writes: “It is not enough to solve the problem at hand but the enhancement of the experience. An appropriate architecture finds a deliberate fit within the context, through incorporation or deliberate opposition.” This exhibition takes on the monograph as its context, emphasizing how Santos’s commitment to the “enhancement of the experience” is realized through her chosen form of expression: drawing. Drawing Experience is dedicated to the architect’s four decades of practice, defined by a steadfast devotion to envisioning and constructing from the user’s perspective. Central here are Santos’s narrative sketches, emblematic of her design philosophy and characterized by her signature arrows. As guiding forces within her designs, these arrows offer us glimpses into the career she has committed to uniting people with one another and with their environment. The exhibition mirrors the monograph’s four chapters, tracing Santos’s journey from her early years in Cape Town to her tenure as dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT from 2004 to 2015. Drawing Experience, ultimately, is a testament to her drawing experience. But more importantly, it serves as a tribute to a design ethos that projects outward, from the human to the sky, embodying all the values that such direction entails. Through their depth of analysis, their visual clarity, and their emphasis on the duty of architecture to serve those who engage it, Santos’s drawings still point an important path forward for the teaching, and practice, of architecture.
Special Thanks: J. Yolande Daniels, Joel Carela, Chris Grimley, Ashley Simone, Brooke Biro, and Jim Harrington.
Curation and Exhibition Design: Mohamad Nahleh, Lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism, Nicholas de Monchaux, Professor and Head of Architecture"; https://architecture.mit.edu/news/exhibit-adele-naude-santos-drawing-experience, last accessed on 1.3.2024.
The exhibition has been recorded with permission.