American architect and developer John Portman's reinvention of the atrium hotel as a remedy for the failing downtowns of American cities is the focus of the exhibition Interior Urbanism/Portman Space, opening at UTS's DAB LAB today.

The exhibition focuses on three of Portman’s interior urban projects: The Peachtree Centre, Atlanta; the Los Angeles Bonaventure Hotel; and Detroit’s Renaissance Centre.

Interior Urbanism/Portman Space pairs a series of precise photographs by Charles Rice, with meticulous computer-based illustrations by Alina McConnochie, providing a contrast between the spectacular, concrete, physical elements exposed by the photographs and the underlying geometry and circularity of the architecture in the illustrations.

Alongside the two-dimensional depictions, a beautiful scale model based on the research illustrations and photographs will also be exhibited.

Associate Professor Charles Rice received a UTS early career research grant to study Portman’s architecture in 2009 and was assisted in his research by recent Master of Architecture graduate, Alina McConnochie.

"What really interests me about Portman’s architecture is the way the interior space develops a kind of urbanism via its circular structure, creating cities within cites without reference to the outside," Rice says.

"In parts of the Middle East, contemporary urban development has amplified this concept on a massive scale, creating enormous closed urban environments. These spaces enable both insulation against the harsh climate and heightened levels of security and control."

Rice's research of Portman architecture has also recently provided crucial information for the US Pavilion exhibition at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale.

A comprehensive three-dimensional digital model of the centre developed by Alina McConnochie was used as the basis for Portman and Associates' own digital modelling of the centre, which enabled them to produce rapid prototype physical models of the Peachtree Centre for the US Pavilion exhibit.

Interior Urbanism/Portman Space at UTS’s DAB LAB research gallery opens is open from 6pm—8pm. The exhibition continues until October 1, 2010.

Architecture & Design Team

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