Visitors to Carnegie Museum of Art’s Hall of Architecture are constantly wowed by the nearly 150 building facades, monuments, and fragments from across the Western World. What many people don’t realize is that this collection is entirely plaster copies, painstakingly cast and reassembled in 1906–1907. It is the only remaining collection of its type in the United States, and one of Pittsburgh’s most iconic spaces.
Over the course of the exhibition Copy + Paste, curators, technologists, students, architects, and artists will test new ways of presenting information about the Hall. Through this eight-month investigation, we invite visitors to try augmented reality, 3-D printing, creative interventions, and hands-on activities. In addition, Carnegie Mellon University professor of architecture Joshua Bard leads a studio exploring the material culture of architectural plaster, examining its historic importance and possible future robotic applications. Students will work in the exhibition galleries, and their resulting experiments will join the Copy + Paste presentation.
Copy + Paste: Hall of Architecture is organized by Alyssum Skjeie, Program Manager, The Heinz Architectural Center.
HACLab is a project of Carnegie Museum of Art’s Heinz Architectural Center. Each Lab invites creative thinkers to design dynamic experiences investigating architecture in Pittsburgh and beyond. The projects are fluid, experimental, and evolve using visitor participation and feedback. We hope that HACLabs offer visitors a new appreciation of human encounters with the built environment.