Gent Shehu

In response to the initiative for everyone to select a piece from the BK model collection, what led you to settle on this one?

Gent Shehu: Joao Filgueiras ‘Lelé’ 'Shed of the Sarah Hospital' acts as a metaphor for my Ph.D. It highlights Lelé’s adoption of modular and prefab structures from greenhouses and his understanding of climate drawn from studying plants. It showcases how wind and sunlight inform structural choices, and how locomotor systems channel fresh air through ventilated shutters. Yet, what if Lele’s environmentally informed design was to be automated, climate-responsive in real-time? Enter my object of study—the contemporary Dutch Glasshouse—a futuristic version of Lelé’s shed that facilitates a multifaceted dialogue between climate, plants, architecture, and AI, addressing today’s cultural and societal needs. Displaying Bas Vahl’s and Kevin Kamman’s 2011 model from 'Lelé - Architect of Health and Happiness' exhibition alongside a contemporary glasshouse in the BK Vitrines is meant to provoke. It invites observers to not only identify the inter-typological underpinnings in Lelé’s work, but also to envision a future of data-driven architecture for the 'Health and Happiness of our planet'.

Gent’s installation is part of his ongoing PhD Research titled: ‘Glass, Plants, and AI: A Media Archaeology of Dutch Greenhouses’. More information about Gent’s PhD research can be found here.