After this we stumbled into the more delicate installation comprising of layers and layers of plastic sheets. This now looks nothing like the promotional photo as there are colourful straws that people have gradually added to the extent that the white is almost unnoticeable. The point is to make you relate to passing through a space, like wind passing through a classroom. The dome gently contracts through the archway between the rooms and you float through this gentle encapsulation slowly.

Onwards you eventually come to a maze of sorts, high walls made from layers of twigs, lit from the floor up; a gorgeous smell resonates. within it there are random little wooden modules which are pale and smooth and invite you to sit inside feeling all protected. the maze leads you onto an open area where the floor i made of large scale gravel. At this point I went off it slightly as the one wall was huge mirrors, and this spoiled the otherwise very naturalistic quality of the piece.

The architect Li Xiaodong states “Experienced as a choreographed one-way route, the timber frame is in-filled with small sections of coppiced timber (coppicing is an effective method of growing sustainable timber fast, without the need to replant). An acrylic raised floor is illuminated by LEDs, and plywood-lined niches provide accents along the route, culminating in a space that Li Xiaodong describes as a Zen garden. Complete with pebbles on the floor, this space is presented as the final scene on a route that the architect likens to ‘a walk through a forest in the snow at night’. “

Onto the next room and this is a huge ceiling downwards installation in plain white which looks more like someone is reflecting the walls that should be within the space but this has been done physically by suspending them from above. Not such a successful piece, but the next room was created by the same architects and was incredibly atmospheric. The first half was brightly evenly lit, whereas this was dark, with a light that slowly got ever so slightly brighter but not so much that you could really see into the darkest corners. I sat in one of the corners for quite a while just absorbing the feeling. It was made out of fireboard which is such an ugly material yet they’d made it seem majestic, and how on earth it had been built was beyond me.

“The structures by Grafton Architects, founded by Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell, hover above Gallery IX and the Lecture Room, suspended from the roof lights above. In order to create a strong spatial tension between adjacent rooms and to set up different lighting scenarios, two dramatically different compositions have been made. Choosing only to work with the roof lights, both installations feature a series of suspended surfaces and forms that manipulate the light and reshape the space in two entirely different ways; one as an exploration of lightness, with what is referred to as a waterfall of light, and the other being the exact opposite, exploring weight, containment and the formation of carved-out space.

finally, we backtracked and went into a blackened pair of rooms, which for some reason were incredibly cold, no idea if that was relevant, which housed two bamboo structures, incredibly delicate. A clever piece of work, but it didn’t amaze me or absorb me like the other installations had.

“The two installations by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma comprise a pair of delicate structures that occupy the Royal Academy’s Large and Small Weston Rooms. Touching the floor lightly, the structures are made from carefully selected lengths of bamboo, imported especially from Kyoto in Japan. Matured for between three to four years and whittled to a diameter of 4 mm, this material was chosen by the architect to exploit its capacity to be bent into shape. It was also chosen for its ability to absorb and slowly release scent, each piece being impregnated with the liquid scent of Japanese Cyprus or Tatami, before being vacuum-packed and shipped to London. Fragile, yet held in structural balance, each structure is made up from a repeated diamond-shaped module, formed by four lengths of bamboo bound together in pairs by sleeves of heat-shrinkable plastic and pulled apart in opposing directions. Where each module touches the floor, the bamboo is clamped in hidden pockets set within a raised plywood floor, which also provides space for a number of recessed LED light fittings. “

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/sensingspaces/meet-the-architects/