“Ordinary things contain the deepest mysteries,” wrote the late British architect and historian Robin Evans in his 1978 essay "Figures, Doors, and Passages." Describing the evolution of the domestic plan, this seminal text is essentially an homage to the common corridor. Yet it is also a reminder of the nuanced and engaging stories lying in wait for those who investigate the spaces in between. As an ideology, Evans’s quote offers the perfect précis for London’s Royal Institute of British Architects exhibition, Radical Rooms: Power of the Plan, on view at RIBA's headquarters through Sept. 24.
The latest in a series to draw from RIBA’s rich archives, Radical Rooms began as an open call to respond to the relationship of architecture to power. Conceived by architect Charles Holland and visual artist Di Mainstone with RIBA curator Margaret Cubbage, the exhibition avoids the obvious institutions of power (government, legal, religious, etc.) and instead focuses on the often-overlooked microterritories of the domestic floor plan. While initiated before the global pandemic, and realized in 2022, the exhibition’s focus on the changing nature of our domestic space feels particularly relevant given the intervening years of enforced homestays. “There are power structures embedded in the home—the way domestic spaces are conceived for use, the private and public areas designed to separate and segregate. Within them, the underlying structures of social organization can be read: issues of culture, economics, gender, class and power,” Holland explains.
Spanning nearly 500 years of design and multiple projects, the exhibition reverses nearly every norm. “The floor plan is a beautifully abstract two-dimensional form. But it is normally just an artifact to support the main thing,” Cubbage notes. “Rarely is it the focus.’ By concentrating on the domestic arrangement of space, Radical Rooms prioritizes the plan over the built structure, the interior over the exterior, and the inhabitants over the architect. The exhibition is anchored around three British residences from the 16th, 18th, and 20th centuries—Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, A la Ronde in Exmouth and the Hopkins House in London—each designed wholly or in part by their female owner-occupiers and challenging the conventions of domestic life. As such, the show inverts traditional power structures, highlighting the profound role that women, as both patrons and architects, have always had in shaping the domestic floor plan—an influence that has persistently been left out of architectural history.
Perhaps the most radical inversion comes through the exhibition’s design. There are no plans, drawings, or photographs immediately on view. Instead, the visitor is immersed in an audio-visual assault of commissioned video performances, lurid textiles, and sound assemblages—each deftly directing attention toward the archival documentation hidden behind a series of curtained pillars. It is a grime-punk-minimalist-maximalist sensory overload, and its success is due to the collaborative nature of its protagonists.
While Holland draws attention to the power in the floor plan through the organization of space, Mainstone inhabits it by bringing alternative versions of the central residences’ occupants—Bess of Hardwick Hall, Jane and Mary Parminter of A la Ronde, and architect Patty Hopkins of the Hopkins House—to virtual life through her scripted music videos. Meanwhile, the London-based graphic design studio Europa emphasizes the gender issue through its use of Mrs Eaves typeface, designed by Zuzana Licko in 1996. The effect is both serious and sensational, making 16th-century floor plans feel youthful, giving voice to the underrepresented, and drawing attention to the complexities of shared spaces.
At the heart of this exhibition is a celebration of collaboration–both in its creation and its content. And just like Robin Evans’s beloved corridors—devices that both define and unite—the cast of performers, artists, designers, archivists, architects, patrons, and inhabitants assembled in Radical Rooms each play their respective roles perfectly in the creation of a shared experience.
The views and conclusions from this author are not necessarily those of ARCHITECT magazine or of The American Institute of Architects.
Read more exhibitions and culture coverage: Ellen Lupton reflects on her curatorial legacy at Cooper Hewitt. | Blaine Brownell visits the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Alabama. | Aaron Betsky visits Barbara Kruger's 'Rabbit Hole' at MoMA.
