The exhibition space as an Architectural Laboratory: Frederick Kiesler’s Endless House

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.20252411135

Keywords:

Art-Architecture interaction, exhibition space, experimental architecture, critique of Modernity, Endless House, Frederik Kiesler

Abstract

The model of Frederick Kiesler’s Endless House was part of the MOMA’s exhibition Visionary Architecture, organised in New York, in 1960. This project, not built, developed the concept of endless in domestic space from ideas defined by the author in the Manifesto of Correalism, where architecture, biology and technology are together. Conceived as a second skin to human body, biomorph and continuous, creates in the interior a space that reject the premises of Modern Movement in favour to the consideration of architecture psychological influence in its inhabitants. This article proves how the Enless House is the result of a creative process developed by Kiesler in his exhibition space projects as architectural ideas laboratories where spectators interact with it and with the object of art. The Enless House summarises these finds through the construction of a membrane from: the integration of arts, the psychological relationship with the space and as a second skin to the body. This proposal is an example of a pioneer architecture from multidisciplinary perspectives that includes biology, art, technology and human behaviour.   

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Author Biography

  • Luz Paz Agras, Universidade da Coruña

    Luz Paz Agras (Xermade – Lugo, 1977). Architect from the School of Architecture of A Coruña, in 2003. Doctor from the same University, in 2013, and Master in Contemporary Art, Criticism and Museology from the University of Santiago, in 2009. She has made several international research stays working about two lines of research: interaction between Art and Architecture and intervention in architectural heritage: at the Bartlett School of Architecture (University College of London), at the Kiesler Foundation in Vienna, at the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, at the Art Institute in Chicago or at the CUJAE, in La Habana. She started as a Lecturer in the School of Architecture of A Coruña in 2009, where, since 2021, is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theory and History. She is a member of the Research Group in Architectural Composition and Heritage [GICAP] and researcher in the Interuniversitary Center of Cultural Galician Landscapes [CISPAC].

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Published

2025-06-30

Issue

No. 24 (2025): Interferences: New Scenarios for the Architectural Project

Section

Topic papers

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Luz Paz Agras

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Paz Agras, L. (2025). The exhibition space as an Architectural Laboratory: Frederick Kiesler’s Endless House. ZARCH. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture and Urbanism, 24, 134-145. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.20252411135
Received 2024-10-17
Accepted 2025-03-17
Published 2025-06-30