Sari Palosaari
1974, Kemi
sculpture
The recently popular architectural structure, glazed balcony, has created a striking new type of space between the interior and the exterior of a building. It is a semi-public room, a somewhat free zone, in which the residents can use their creativity to shape the space as they like. Even though it is the facade of a building that is in question, no regulations or plans of the architect can reach behind the balcony glasses. As a consequence, the questions of seeing and being seen have become very tangible for the users – the passers-by have not been left cold either. Facades of buildings covered with glazed balconies are like an architectural version of Facebook – “a facadebook” – a place for a play with visibility.
I work with the fragmentation of the architectural structure and creating ele- ments based on the measures of a glazed balcony. The core of my exploration is not so much in what people show on their balconies but rather in the structures that enable the play with visibility. I play around with the elements that were created as a result of the fragmentation process. The re-assembling is a method to reveal the structures in a new light.