Project Description
From ARCHITECT, November 2013
J. Mayer H. Architects in Georgia, by Ian Volner:
Perched on a long pier (also designed by Mayer) and standing just a shade under 101 feet high, the Lazika sculpture can be seen from far up the beach, an uncanny mirage framed by the sea and the southern Caucasus range. Visually, its precision-cut, intersecting plates recall Mayer’s breakthrough Metropol Parasol project in Seville, Spain—both reflecting the architect’s preoccupation with “the way the real and virtual is coming together,” and how space and structure can be used to explore “negotiations between public and private, inside and outside,” he says. In yet another instance of the architect abjuring a literal or representational approach, the sculpture is meant as an abstract icon of its as-yet unfinished city, an architectural metonym on the order of St. Louis’s Gateway Arch. Whatever becomes of President Mikheil Saakashvili’s dream city, Mayer feels the sculpture will stand as a compelling argument for a particular vision of Georgia. “It’s a trailer of a possible future,” he says.
For more from this article, visit: http://www.architectmagazine.com/projects/firm-profiles/j-mayer-h.aspx