CK-Architecture was invited to participate and to design an installation for FREEZE in January 2009.
CK-Architecture principal Christoph Kapeller has been joined by the world renowned artist Lita Albuquerque and Buro Happold , Los Angeles to design the installation.
What is FREEZE?
FREEZE is an outdoor, winter exhibition, with a coordinating series of public lectures and programs, featuring designers (architects, artists, landscape architects, lighting designers, graphic designers and others) from around the globe working in collaboration to create installations that feature, as primary materials, snow, ice and light - elements that characterize winter in the north. FREEZE will take place along the Delaney Park Strip in downtown Anchorage.
Polar regions are receiving increasing attention in these times of climate change and environmental awareness. People have lived in the Arctic since at least the peak of the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago, and the top of the world has been the first part of Earth to show dramatic effects from the heating of the atmosphere and oceans. The polar region appears to be warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. The current rate of loss of sea ice is likely to push the Arctic system into a climatic state not seen for at least a million years.
But, for a warming place, the arctic is still cool. The people living here do not shun the cold. Rather, they have learned to thrive in it and even celebrate it, with winter carnivals dating back to 1918 in Anchorage. FREEZE will serve as a continuation of the celebration of winter. The installations will be ephemeral but will have a lasting impact.
Participants come from around the globe, including Alaska, Canada, Norway, Iceland, Germany, England, California, Arizona and Washington. While participants or organized, into "teams," this is not a competition, but rather a collaboration between individuals and disciplines and a sharing of ideas and perspectives.
FREEZE is organized and hosted by the Alaska Design Forum in association with the International Gallery of Contemporary Art and the Anchorage Museum. The exhibition is curated by Julie Decker, Ph.D., author, artist, independent curator and gallery director, in association with Brian Carter, Dean of Architecture and Planning for SUNY Buffalo, an architect and award-winning author of numerous books on modern architecture.
(from FREEZE website)
