SPORTS, Runaway, 2017

SPORTS, Runaway, 2017

Designed by architecture + design duo SPORTS (Molly Hunker and Greg Corso), Runaway was the winner of the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara 2017 Take Part / Make Art Pavilion Competition. Inspired by similar contemporary pavilion initiatives ranging from the Serpentine Pavilions in London to MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program in New York, the Museum’s pavilion design competition aimed to both challenge and produce rich dialogue with the traditional California Mission style aesthetic that typically characterizes Santa Barbara.

Chosen for its bright, playful character, functional modularity, and thoughtful engagement with Santa Barbara’ local atmosphere and architecture, Runaway was installed in six different sites throughout Santa Barbara, starting at Stearn’s Wharf in March 2017. Created out of brightly colored steel matrices, the pavilion design features three modular pieces that can be assembled in a number of ways. Hunker explains, “The various orientations allow for a variety of programs to be supported by the pavilion throughout its life-span and different sites. The intention is for the three structures to be oriented differently at each of the site locations so as to have a renewed existence, and to provoke new uses and interesting engagements at each new location.”

Runaway invites communities to view and interact in unexpected ways with their surroundings, and in doing so, encourages residents as well as artists to consider how contemporary design can activate and energize public spaces. About their design, Corso and Hunker observe that “Air is often very powerful and visible in Santa Barbara - a beautiful blur caused by heat (heat shimmer or mirage) and marine fog. Runaway privileges this visual and atmospheric effect and in so doing, acts as a beautiful spectacle and object of urban decor for the communities of Santa Barbara.” In this way, Runaway’s design also resonates with and draws upon the history of California’s Light and Space movement to call into question current issues of visibility within Santa Barbara’s communities.

Design: SPORTS

Engineering: NOUS Engineering

Metal Fabrication: Metal Arts Foundry

Powder Coating: Williamson Ocean

Photos and video by Elliot Lowndes.