Royal Academy of Arts

UNEXPECTED HILL
3 July — 20 September 2015

Visitors to Burlington Gardens will be welcomed this summer by a ceramic urban landscape designed by emerging Istanbul-based practice, SO? Architecture and Ideas.

Repositioning ceramics from a small-scale decorative material to one which creates a large surface structure, Unexpected Hill activates the forgotten zone between the Royal Academy’s Burlington Gardens building and the street into a new public space. Viewed from above, Unexpected Hill refers to the geometric patterning central to Islamic traditions that uses shape and colour for optical effect. The triangular patterning is stretched into a three dimensional structure that steps across the site and acknowledges ‘Muqarnas’, traditional architectural ornamented vaulting, as it bridges overhead. The structure transforms the scale and dimensionality at which ceramics are normally encountered.

Inside Burlington Gardens public participation is equally important with an interactive wall designed by Tamer Nakisç that invites creative exploration of ceramic tiles and geometry.