Sensing Spaces

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It's not often you get this up close and personal with such a decorative ceiling, but at the Sensing Spaces exhibition at the Royal Academy you can climb up one of the architectural installations until you are staring into this angelic face. 

I didn't take a picture of the installation, but there are some great pics of it by other people here. It was designed by glamorous Chilean-based duo Pezo von Ellrichshausen and fits the brief of evoking the experience and power of architecture within a gallery environment. It is a huge structure, but you get to climb up it, walk around it, touch it - and admire the cornicing too.

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The clue is in the title of this exhibition as it's all about the way a space makes you feel, not think, feel. It is definitely a plus not to be surrounded by dry architectural drawings and instead just be able to walk through the real thing.

This was by far the most photogenic structure which encouraged audience participation with colourful straws and will only get better as the weeks go by and more and more straws are attached. 

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It was designed by the architect Diébédo Francis Kéré who built an award-winning primary school in Burkina Faso and he talks engagingly in this video about bringing elements of that project into this one, it's the second one down. In fact, the videos really bring the show to life and you can watch them all online for free.

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I loved that someone had done this.