Work Table(au)
Jason R. Chandler, FAIA
Buildings and Projects 2009-2023
Table. A piece of furniture with a flat top and one or more legs, providing a level surface on which objects may be placed, and that can be used for such purposes as eating, writing, working, or playing games. "she put the plate on the table"
- Oxford English Dictionary
Tableau is used to describe a painting or photograph in which characters are arranged for picturesque or dramatic effect and appear absorbed and completely unaware of the existence of the viewer.
-The Tate
Work Table(au) is an architectural exhibition of the work of FIU Associate Professor Jason R. Chandler, FAIA. 10 projects, 6 which have been built and 4 which are in progress or unbuilt are displayed on a single “work” table 3-foot-wide by 33-feet long. Each project is represented with design and working drawings, photographs, renderings and models. Seen in its totality, this display is a calculated but picturesque arrangement of the production of architecture.
This retrospective and in-process exhibition of work represents a “middle” third of the life of a professional architect. All the work, except one competition entry – the last one by Chandler, is commissioned work. The work is consistently conceived as contributions to the nascent urban fabric of Miami. Two design drawings are employed to connect the work under a consistent lens: a site plan and a worms eye axonometric. The site plan places each project in a Nolli-esque* context: buildings are rendered as objectified objects that collectively form the urban space and building mass of an area. The worms eye axonometric, inspired by Auguste Choisy**, is a single totalizing view that displays plan, elevation, interior space and exterior massing simultaneously. 12 handmade basswood models continue this even rendering of the work. As a blunt accounting of the design, these models are built after a series of foam core study models and before the construction of the building.
All these buildings and projects begin with the labor of architecture and the embracing of its well-tread means of development: the making and thinking with rigorous and crafted drawings and models.
*Giambattista Nolli (1701 – 1756), Nolli Map of Rome,1748
**Auguste Choisy (1841–1909), Histoire de l'Architecture 1899
Exhibition venue and dates:
FIU Miami Beach Urban Studios
Washington Gallery
11.30.2023-01.19.2024
Photography: Zalmy Meyer AIA (Images 1 and 2 and GIF)