How can exploring space and architecture lead to new perspectives? That’s what the Canadian Centre for Architecture’s latest exhibition, Other Space Odysseys: Greg Lynn, Michael Maltzan, Alessandro Poli, tries to answer. The three distinguished architects have come together to showcase otherworldly works that offer a completely different way of thinking about architecture.

More pictures from the exhibit

The exhibition proposes a letting go of the idea of architecture as the production of material goods in favour of architecture as the presentation of ideas. The architects used outer space as a context for experimentation, as well as an extreme condition, in which they could test new ideas.

TORO attended the exclusive press opening of the exhibit at the CCA in downtown Montreal and spoke to the architects who worked on Other Space Odysseys.

Greg Lynn

Credited for coining the term “blob architecture,” renowned architect Greg Lynn joined forces with a film designer from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and designed an “ideal” virtual city in typical amoeba-like form as part of his gallery.

“I wanted to look at the way we experience the world, not as a globe but different spatial qualities, and I tried to capture this,” he explained. “It informs how we might build things today. I also explored the design of space colonies and addressed systems for sustainable living, alternative lifestyles, and political and cultural issues in an entirely man-made environment, potentially encumbered by the typical layers of tradition that categorize life on earth.” The five-piece gallery is entitled New City.

He also presented a project with N.O.A.H. (New Outer Atmospheric Habitat) structures, using four models to demonstrate uniquely porous planets with various microclimates and spaces. A total of three of Lynn’s projects are featured in the exhibit.

Michael Maltzan

Distinguished architect Michael Maltzan displayed his new building proposal for the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) NASA facility, which seeks to bridge the gap between space exploration and bureaucracy.

“I want to develop a new mechanical exploration of space,” he said. “They’re sending things far out in space, getting data and interpreting it – how could you begin to think of those dimensions and distances? It seemed so subjective, but there was also an emotional context to it. The divide between the mundane existence on earth and the place they were studying was so vast I wanted to know how to make a space for these, in and of itself. I’m addressing the interrelated programs of scientific research, interplanetary communication and technical innovation undertaken by the JPL, and the design proposes a new architectural model for scientific research.”

Alessandro Poli

From the time man first walked on the moon in 1969, Alessando Poli has been exploring new ideas of “geography,” and he displayed several bodies of work from the last few decades in Other Space Odysseys (Self-portrait with reflection of Earth-moon highway, pictured, above left). Poli's various projects look at how the earth’s environment and outer space are connected, through film, sketches, collages, storyboards and tools that help illustrate his gallery, Zeno: Research on a Self-Sufficient Culture.

The latest exhibit at the CCA will challenge norms about the material world and expand upon architectural possibilities in outer space. Explored through the minds of some of architecture’s brightest and most revolutionary thinkers, Other Space Odysseys is truly out of this world.

Other Space Odysseys: Greg Lynn, Michael Maltzan, Alessandro Poli is on display at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal through September 6, 2010.

More info: CCA website

Click the numbers below for a look at the exhibit.