Who: Daniel K Brown.
Where: Daniel was born in the United States, but now lives in New Zealand, when he’s not traveling around the world to put on amazing shows.
What: After going to Williams College in Massachusetts Daniel went to Yale University School of Architecture where he got his Master of Architecture in 1982. At present he’s the Program Director, Interior Architecture at Victoria University School of Architecture.
The primary objective of Daniel’s work is addressing the expression of architectural narrative through designs that challenge the very nature of what architecture is. Or:
In His Words:
The largest of the installations redefine public urban sites as architectural interiors through the integration of fire, water, shadow and reflection as spatial definers.
The themes are selected from issues at the forefront of a site’s historical and mythological context, while the points of view represent critical perspectives drawn from the site’s cultural framework. The resulting narratives directly challenge our perception of our environment as well as its inhabitants.
In literature, poetry, music, dance, theatre and film, narrative enables unique points of view to be communicated across a time continuum, moving us through a range of transforming emotions, human responses and resulting levels of understanding. Architecture can be conceived as narrative when it, like literature and dance, invites the shifting of perception through time as we move through space. By challenging architecture to tell a story, the art of architecture becomes a compelling vehicle for imparting lessons of cultural understanding and translating cultural imperatives.
Architectural narrative is cross-disciplinary, simultaneously challenging and re-interpreting design theory from the perspective of linguistics, psychology, social and cultural theory. It challenges the fundamental objectives of three-dimensional design in terms of personal perception, transformation over time, social awareness, as well as cultural identity.
These works push the boundaries of how architecture is traditionally defined, questioning its very nature and actively challenging presumptive definitions, prescriptions and limitations of the discipline. The works enter the international public arena by transforming a site for a month or for just an evening – then returning to the presumptive state once more.
The largest of the sites has been a half kilometre length of river in the heart of Rome; the smallest an apothecary jar.
Daniel had an exhibition of his work while he was here called “Silent Witnesses: Pathways and Passages,” in November of 2010.