Objectspace gallery in Auckland’s Ponsonby has long championed the exhibition of architecture, and on 10 August they continued this trend by opening In Context: RTA Studio. In Context was conceived as a series of exhibitions that will put the designs of prominent New Zealand architects in the spotlight. 

The first in the series, curated by Andrew Barrie, focuses on RTA Studio by placing models of some of their most iconic designs in the centre of the Objectspace gallery. The models themselves sit atop a cardboard plane which represents a spliced together map of New Zealand. The 10-metre long display is meant to give viewers the landscape and spatial backdrop to 30 of RTA Studio’s buildings. 

Barrie notes, “Context is one of architecture’s fundamental concerns, and the exhibition delivers a set of established and emerging approaches.”

The display is raised to a comfortable viewing height with yet more corrugated cardboard sheets, creating a striated platform. Even the ceiling of the gallery space has been lined with folded white paper, bringing the height down and meeting at an apex just above the centre of the display, drawing gallery-goers into an intimate experience.  

Though the opening was crowded with people, it was easy to be pulled into the miniature world of RTA’s projects, complete with small people and sheep populating this tiny Aotearoa.

Objectspace director Kim Paton says, “It is poignant for us to work with RTA as the inaugural architectural practice in what will be a biennial exhibition.” The studio celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and designed the Objectspace building itself.

“We plan to work with an architect or practice on a creative project developed outside of the normal constraints of commercial practice. The series will investigate methods for how architecture can be experienced in a gallery context and the contribution the discipline can make to our sense of culture and place,” Paton continues.

The exhibition offers a new way for the public to interact with architecture, at a relatable scale, which is a merit in itself. Beyond that, the project is zero waste, with all of the cardboard and paper used being reused or recycled at the end. Perhaps above all, In Context is an exploration of how buildings do not simply end with the built form, and it puts on display the way designs interact, grow and change with the landscape they sit in.

In Context: RTA Studio runs at Objectspace – 13 Rose Road, Grey Lynn – until 7 September 2019.