The Ever-Playful David Rockwell on Architecture as an "Experience"

By Reena Jana
October 18, 2010

David Rockwell loves drama—the good kind. The architect and designer is well known for his spectacular stage sets for Broadway hits (from the long-running Hairspray to the recently opened Elf: The Musical) as well as dramatic, trend-setting interior designs for the W hotels and Nobu restaurants around the globe. Rockwell is also an artist: his installation, "Plug-in-Play," is on view at San Jose, CA's City Hall Plaza from October 17-20th, at dusk. Rockwell and engineers at his New York-based firm, Rockwell Group, wired elements of the public space with outdoor design elements from benches to street lamps, to light up and "react" to people walking by. The result is a playful and dynamic work of interactive art and outdoor design. Rockwell took some time out of his busy schedule (among other projects, he's currently finalizing theater set designs for John Guare's much-anticipated play, Free Man of Color, which opens in November at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York) to discuss what objects inspire him the most.

The Inside Source: Tell us about your kaleidoscopes collection in your office. Does this collection influence your architectural design work at all?

David Rockwell: I've been collecting kaleidoscopes for over 20 years, and have a large collection both at home and at work. I've always been fascinated by these toys, and how they create such an accessible, interactive, hands-on experience. There are always constant, endless, variations, transformations, and permutations which can occur—a personal spectacle for anyone who wants to take part.

Just like how kaleidoscopes take familiar images or objects and then magically jumble them over and over again to create fresh new pictures, in my work, I take ideas from different fields and different areas, and combine them together to look at other things in a fresh and new way. Also, many [kaleidoscopes] are beautiful objects of art in their own right. I'm still totally focused on continuing to build on my kaleidoscope collection!

The Inside Source: Besides kaleidoscopes, what other novelty items interest you? What do you search for on eBay?

David Rockwell: Legos for my kids. Airplane paraphernalia from the 1960s and '70s, which I first began looking at when working on sets for the Broadway show Catch Me If You Can. I also look for lanterns from the 1800s, like the ones used in New Orleans during that time period, for the sets for Free Man of Color. I'm also interested in spirographs to develop patterns for Rockwell Group's graphic work. I search for vintage playground toys, as research for the Imagination Playground, which is a new type of interactive play space where kids can build their own structures.

Roll over items for details

Set of 2 Vintage Wooden Kaleidoscopes

(starting bid, $19.95)

NEW Building Block Toys Little White Dragon

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1978 Piaggio P.166-DL3 Airplane Aircraft Photo Ad

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Vintage KLM Airplane Pin Badge Steel

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Western Airlines 727 Airplane Postcard

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Vintage Kenner Spirograph #401

(buy it now price, $19.95)

Vintage Playground Ride Chick Cast Aluminum Chicken

(buy it now price, $229)

Dietz US Brass Tubular Lantern

(buy it now price, $195)

1880 Brass Filagree Coach Wall Lantern

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The Ever-Playful David Rockwell on Architecture as an

The Inside Source: The Imagination Playground [a playground designed to encourage "child-directed, unstructured" free play] got a lot of buzz when the first one opened this summer, and they're popping up around the world. Did your children [Sam, 10 and Lola, 8] give any input in to your design of the Imagination Playground?

David Rockwell: They were my inspiration! It was when I started bringing them to playgrounds that I noticed a real need for play spaces that encouraged unstructured, creative, free play. It's easy to forgot how brilliantly resourceful kids are when they play. For example, one day I came home, and we had received this desk that my daughter Lola really wanted (who was four at the time). I came in the house, and all she wanted to do was play in the box the desk came in. The box with the foam pellets was so much more open-ended and interesting, and she transformed it into a fort, and then a plane, and then a bathtub. This is the real goal of imagination playground: enabling kids to do the work they do best: build, invent, create.

Plug-in-Play

The Inside Source: Can you give us a hint as to your creative process? Your design and architectural projects are so wildly varied, which must be fun as well as challenging. Do you ever borrow from one to create another?

David Rockwell: Every design project introduces a whole new collection of inspirations, with every different collaborator, client, cultural landscape, and context. We are constantly building on our discoveries, and so we certainly bring in what we have learned from past projects into new ones. We always strive to make sure each design project stands out by brainstorming fresh and relevant solutions. It's all about blurring the boundaries, allowing a plurality of interests to compete, and always being alert to the possibility of unexpected collisions.

One good example of projects building on one another is our recent “Plug-in-Play” installation, which was created for an art exhibition, the 01SJ Biennial. There, Rockwell Group's digital interaction LAB used the TSPS software they've been working on since our 2008 “Hall of Fragments” installation at the Venice Architecture Biennale. [This software uses] cameras to sense people in an environment and then send this information to other visualization software. To create a space that responds to and is defined by a large network of connections and interactions, the LAB developed tracked virtual and geo-location (Twitter feeds, Foursquare check-ins, Flickr postings) as well as physical activity around existing and placed objects in the San Jose City Hall. All of this activity was filtered and translated into an abstracted version of a cityscape projected on the façade of the building, suggesting a new type of environment where the vitality and complexity with which people engage with their urban environments is more dynamically reflected.

The Inside Source: You've done a lot of work with interior hotel designs — do you ever take design ideas that have worked in your home and brought them to a client? Or vice versa?

David Rockwell: My house is a medley of mementoes of Rockwell Group projects, my past, and my travels: a wardrobe covered in witty 1940's and 50's wallpaper that reflects my interest in vintage furnishings; numerous kaleidoscopes that I have collected over the years; family photographs; ceramic jars from the Galapagos; a "Hairspray" print by Al Hirschfeld; a hand-assembled coffee table made of reclaimed birch branches by a Canadian artist; and a boldly colored hand-painted folding screen.

The Inside Source: What's your favorite room in your home?

David Rockwell: When I designed my loft in Tribeca, I created a rotating chair perched on my roof that provides a 360-degree view of downtown Manhattan. It is the perfect place to go at the end of a busy day to unwind and relax.

The Inside Source: You have family roots in the theater. Can anyone transform any space—a dining room, a living room, a bathroom, a backyard—into an "experience" by adding dramatic furniture, curtains, and other details?

David Rockwell: Having grown up with a band of brothers who were constantly transforming our garage or living room into fantasy clubhouses, I would say that anyone can certainly make any space into an experience with just a bit of creativity and imagination! At Rockwell Group, when we approach a space, whether in a hotel or a restaurant or a play, we always try to create an immersive experience that engages all the senses and makes guests connect to each other and their environment.

(Images provided by Rockwell Group)

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