Thom Faulders: BAMscape

BAM/PFA presents BAMscape, a major new commissioned work by Thom Faulders, the award-winning architect and founder of Berkeley-based Faulders Studio. Faulders's BAMscape blurs the boundaries between art, architecture, and furniture design, serving as a site for rest, relaxation, and study, as well as a platform for the experience of live performance and multimedia events. Running through Fall 2011, BAMscape is the new centerpiece of Gallery B, BAM/PFA's expansive 6,692-square-foot central atrium.


Constructed from brightly painted 3/8-inch-thick bendable plywood and 1/4-inch plywood sides, BAMscape is a shaped elevation of 150 individual curved modules, which were shipped and installed onsite. Each module was created using digital fabrication processes, which efficiently allowed Faulders to make all of the contours unique, based directly off of drawings. The modules are fastened together, and electrical outlets are spaced around the environment to facilitate laptop use. The resulting footprint of the object is 1,550 square feet of undulating curves.



Visually bold, structurally innovative, kinesthetically engaging, Faulders's design communicates a playful inventiveness resonant with both the museum's groundbreaking architecture and with BAM/PFA's dynamic and risk-taking programs. From their BAMscape vantage point, participants can observe some of the museum's most dynamic attributes: dramatically cantilevered balconies, radiating patterns of interconnected structural beams, and bright skylight planes. Visitors can also assemble on BAMscape to participate in, or view, a host of newly programmed events: artist and curator talks, musical performances, film and video screenings, and other activities that occur in conjunction with the museum's new program, L@TE: Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA. During daytime hours, free wireless Internet will allow students and other visitors to enjoy BAMscape as a site for study and social networking.

Thom Faulders's work has been exhibited at La Triennale di Milano, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Lisbon International Biennale, and at Künstlerhaus in Vienna. His work is included in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). He has received awards from the Architectural League of New York, Bienal Miami + Beach, American Institute of Architects, and the Society for Environmental Graphic Design. Faulders is also a recipient of the SFMOMA Experimental Design Award. He is an associate professor of architecture at California College of the Arts (CCA), San Francisco.

Thom Faulders: BAMscape