Seth McDowell Architect, pllc

Authenticity is the 34th annual exhibition by winners of The Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers. Participants are chosen through an annual competition, open to residents of North America ten years or less out of undergraduate or graduate school.

In addition to creating a site-specific installation of their work, winners present lectures, publish their work in an annual catalogue, and are the subjects of features on archleague.org, including

in-depth interviews, expanded project slideshows, and video excerpts from their lectures.

2015’s theme, Authenticity, explored the meaning of originality and reproduction, with an emphasis on decoupling the dichotomy between 'original' and 'copy.' Probing the implications of the originality/ reproduction relationship for design practice, the committee sought proposals that cultivate new positions of authenticity within architecture, foregrounding "authenticity as a pursuit, rather than a form of validation or essential quality.'·

In this exhibition Seth McDowell and Rychiee Espinosa presented a grouping of “spatial constructs” that reinterpret a series of speculative architectural projects. Using an identical set of material “ingredients,” partners we constructed a radically different set of physical models utilizing abnormal construction techniques: aggregated thin layers of wax cast in water, linear threaded wads of chewing gum coated with dried spearmint leaves, and intricate modular constructions of laser-cut wood. These constructs are 12” cubes that express the nature of tectonics and properties inherent to the material. Drawings of these models translate the spatial constructs into architectural speculations — mysterious formations without context and utility.