(This Is) Air documents Nic Brunsdon's 2023 NGV Architecture Commission — a large-scale installation that uses air itself as a building material, breathing in and out across the day in a rhythm that reframes architecture as something living and finite.
About This Book
What does it mean to build with something invisible? Brunsdon's commission at the NGV took form as a vast sphere that expanded and contracted throughout the day, making breath — and the quality of the air we depend on — perceptible and political. This publication is the definitive record of that project, assembling critical writing, documentation, and conversation to examine the work as both architectural experiment and ecological statement. It sits at the intersection of architecture, environmental thinking, and civic space, asking urgent questions about what we share, what we consume, and what we are slowly diminishing. Essential reading for architects and designers attentive to the discipline's responsibilities beyond built form.
Key Features
- 152 pages of critical essays, project documentation, photography by Ben Hosking, and conversation transcripts
- Foreword by David Neustein; introduction by Jessica Kwok (Associate Curator, Storefront for Art and Architecture); new writing by Mark Jacques
- Conversations and addresses featuring Nic Brunsdon, Dr Timothy Moore, Ewan McEoin, and members of the technical team
- Published by Mess Books, 2023
What You'll Discover
- How air was deployed as a structural and conceptual building material — a sphere that morphs and breathes — collapsing the boundary between architecture and atmosphere
- Critical perspectives on breathing as a civic and political act, and the increasingly compromised quality of the air shared across all life on earth
- The relationship between architecture and ecological urgency, traced through the commission's iterative development and technical realisation
- How the project navigates the tension between process and product, experiment and resolution, architecture and art installation
About the Author
Nic Brunsdon is an Australian architect whose 2023 NGV Architecture Commission, (This Is) Air, used air as a building material to create a large breathing sphere installation. The commission drew on ecological, civic, and political questions surrounding air quality and our dependency on this finite resource.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 152
- Dimensions: 135 x 190 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780645586053
- Publisher: Mess Books
- Publication Date: 2023
Perfect For: Architects and designers engaged with ecological thinking, curators and critics interested in the intersection of installation art and architecture, and anyone attending to questions of air quality, civic space, and the politics of breath.