A whimsical Exhibit Columbus installation is again earning serious attention — this time at a major display in Washington, D.C.
The New York City-based Snarkitecture architectural firm has included Playhouse, an all-white, popular children’s-style seating area that was placed locally in an alley on Washington Street downtown, in its latest exhibit, “Fun House.”
The display opened Wednesday at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., where the firm attracted 180,000 people for its last exhibit in 2015. The venue serves as a home of architecture, design, engineering, construction and urban planning. The exhibit runs through Sept. 3, according to Snarkitecture partner Ben Porto.
“It’s always great for our projects to have a second life,” Porto said, speaking from his New York office. “That’s always a goal, because a lot of the work we do is for a temporary capacity or pop-ups with all the shorter projects.
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“We kind of made this (Playhouse) so that it could be easily shipped, so this (addition) is great. And this is actually pretty quick to get it turned around and already part of a new project,” he said.
The inaugural installation portion of Exhibit Columbus was from Aug. 26 through Nov. 26 and attracted an audience estimated at more than 40,000 people, according to Richard McCoy, one of its founders. Organizers considered Playhouse among the most-visited installations in Columbus.
Those commenting on it online and having a photo taken in it included “Columbus” film stars John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson when they visited for the film’s Indiana premiere Sept. 1.
McCoy pointed out that Snarkitecture already had a national reputation, especially for whimsy, when Columbus furniture designer Jonathan Nesci contacted them about Exhibit Columbus. Nesci, who boasts a national reputation himself, coordinated all the Washington street installations.
“I don’t know that we ever imagined what they actually would make,” McCoy said, “or that what they would make would have another life (beyond Columbus). It was never an expectation.”
McCoy said it “certainly was among the most Instgrammed pieces. The thing that I think made Playhouse so successful here was that everyone felt comfortable in it.”
Nesci was at Snarkitecture’s exhibit opening on Tuesday at the National Building Museum.
“It’s fun to see it as it is now,” Nesci said. “In Columbus, since it was kind of closed off (by buildings on either side), you couldn’t really get a good sense of the depth. Even though it depicts the same idea, as you see it the way it is now, the context changes.”
Nesci added that it’s exciting to see the work attract added attention for a good while longer.
“It brought so much joy to people in Columbus just as it was being used,” he said. “You could see a lot of smiles.”
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What: New whimsical exhibit, “Fun House” by New York City based architectural firm Snarkitecture. The display, set up like a home, includes Playhouse. That popular Exhibit Columbus installation was inserted in a Washington Street alleyway between Third and Fourth Streets with elongated seating under a playhouse-style roof.
Why: The exhibit helps tell the 10-year history of Snarkitecture — with partners Alex Mustonen, Daniel Arsham, and Ben Porto — and its unorthodox manner of interpreting structures.
When: Through Sept. 3.
Where: National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., a home of architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning.
The firm’s name: Drawn from Lewis Carroll’s “The Hunting of The Snark,” a poem describing the “impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature.”
Information: snarkitecture.com
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