James Corner's Summer ICEBERGS

John Hill

9. March 2016

Image courtesy of National Building Museum

The National Building Museum (NBM) in Washington, DC, has unveiled ICEBERGS, James Corner Field Operations' installation that will occupy the museum's huge Great Hall this summer.

Serving as the latest iteration in the NBM's annual Summer Block Party series (following BIG's Maze and Snarkitecture's Beach), ICEBERGS will "[represent] a beautiful, underwater world of glacial ice fields, ... [and] emphasize current themes of landscape representation, geometry, and construction," per a statement from the museum.

According to James Corner, founder and director of James Corner Field Operations, "ICEBERGS invokes the surreal underwater-world of glacial ice fields. Such a world is both beautiful and ominous given our current epoch of climate change, ice-melt, and rising seas. The installation creates an ambient field of texture, movement, and interaction, as in an unfolding landscape of multiples, distinct from a static, single object."

ICEBERGS will be built from scaffolding, polycarbonate panels and other reusable construction materials. A 20-foot-high "water line" will bisect the space vertically to create above and below realms, with the tallest piece ascending 56 feet to the height of the third floor. Visitors will be able to enter this tallest "bergy bit" to traverse an undersea bridge, relax among caves and grottos, eat frozen snacks, and participate in educational programming related to landscape and the environment.

ICEBERGS will be on display at the NBM in Washington, DC, from 2 July to 5 September 2016.