Lawn
Exhibition & Environmental Graphics
As part of the National Building Museum's tradition of Summer Block Party installations, LAB at Rockwell Group designed Lawn for Summer 2019. Exploring the idea of the lawn as an open-ended communal space for both interaction and performance, we reinterpreted into its defining aspects – spaciousness, verdancy, tranquility – to transform the museum’s Great Hall into a living environment for the public to share stories, make memories, and daydream.
- Project Category
- Selected Awards
-
- A|N Best of Design Awards: Editors’ Pick for Temporary Installation
- Interior Design Magazine Best of Year: Architectural Installation/Popup Winner
- Selected Press
Each corner of the installation was designed to transport guests to a world outdoors. The ticketing area featured park benches and a building-scale mural of the sky, composed of a pixelated cloudscape made up of classic summertime icons.
Lawn is a state of mind.
A vast, sloping greenspace consumed the first two bays of the Great Hall. Arriving at the base, guests were met with a green expanse, set on a graceful incline and dotted with clusters of communal lounging areas that immediately inviting participation.
Hammocks suspended from the ceiling played audio recordings of over 20 prominent American icons such as Bette Midler, Venus Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Norman Lear, José Andrés and more, allowing visitors to sway to their memories of summertime.
“To me that’s what a lawn does. It just gives you the opportunity to think.”
To capture the spirit of community that defines all great lawns, we programmed and activated the space throughout the day with summer entertainment and activities, including movies, yoga, meditation, and a series of site-specific dance performances.
“I had this extraordinary lawn adventure when I moved to Mexico, where in Guadalajara, really the street became the lawn.”
