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Think of your last job interview: was there a large chair and a small chair? How were you positioned in relation to the interviewers? Was the building imposing, even intimidating, and branded with corporate logos? This is the architecture of power: human relationships governed by design. Langlands & Bell, who have been collaborating since 1978, focus on such ideas in their work.
Langlands & Bell offer us models, digital prints or (more recently) interactive footage and photographs of a place or places. The work is presented in a neutral, coolly analytical way — as specimens, opened up, revealing the relationships we have with environments and systems.
The duo are perhaps best known for their beautifully made architectural models, often shown under glass, embedded in purpose-built, lacquered wooden furniture or arranged in groups around the gallery. Such works slice into the interiors of powerful corporate headquarters. More idealistic architectural projects, such as the utopian social housing of the modernist architect Le Corbusier, have also been examined.
Some types of building have always been more than a way of keeping off the rain. From temples and churches to retail developments, architecture has throughout history filled us with awe of some greater power, or otherwise influenced our movements, our behaviour — even our thoughts. 'We shape our buildings,' said Langlands & Bell in an interview with Flash Art magazine in 1991, 'and thereafter they shape us.'
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