Concrete Colony was created by Archrival as a site specific installation for the Keystone Festival Bar during the Sydney Festival 2012.
The installation uses an innovative concrete fabric material, concrete canvas, that allows organic forms to be created. In a relaxing corner, the gracefully formed chairs, benches and ottomans contrast with the formal structure of the venue – Hyde Park Barracks.
Collaboration is at the heart of Archrival’s work and this installation is no exception. The team that created it included architects, interior designers, a fashion designer, a graphic designer and industrial designer. Team members donated old chairs to be used as formwork for the concrete fabric, and quickly learned that they needed to work together to handle the cumbersome material effectively. The result is ten adapted furniture pieces wrapped, cloaked and draped in concrete canvas.
Founded in 2011, Archrival is a Sydney-based not-for-profit organization conceived as a vehicle for procuring unsolicited projects outside of commercial architectural practice. It offers individual architects from different offices the opportunity to explore new ways of participating in architectural thinking and making in a context which is both not for profit and without a specified client. Archrival is one of six teams to exhibit at the Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2012.
