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AUTOTYPE’S FOOTPRINT LEADS THE WAY TO CUTTING-EDGE ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITION
Open to the public from Saturday 29th November to Sunday 29 February 2004, this is the first UK exhibition for the acclaimed architects. Founded by Alejadro Zaera Polo and Farshid Moussavi, the FOA is an international practice of architecture and urban design, dedicated to the exploration of contemporary urban conditions and construction technologies. The exhibition is a groundbreaking, visually stunning show that explores their projects, the particularities of each city in which they have built, and the range of influences on their work including music, film and literature. To immerse visitors still further into the exhibition, special floor and wall graphics have been used to complement the visual effects of the individual architectural projects. In particular, Autotype’s FootPrint floor graphic system is being used for graphic images as well as guiding and directing visitors to different areas of the exhibition. The actual floor graphics have been produced and installed by London based Sky Photographic and took approximately 85 hours to produce over a three week period. The graphics were supplied in PDF format and printed on a single HP 5500 six colour inkjet printer, to ensure colour consistency. Each graphic was printed onto the underside of the durable, textured polyester film-based FootPrint to produce images with excellent clarity and resolution combined with a high degree of transparency. The FootPrint system was specifically selected by Brian Judge at Sky Photographic for the FOA exhibition as he explains, 'We have previously used FootPrint extensively in a wide range of retail and supermarket environments so we knew it would stand up to the rigours of the high numbers of visitors expected at the exhibition. In addition, the material offers a highly scratch resistant surface and is ideal for temporary graphics as it’s exceptionally easy to install and remove especially in large areas. The Institute of Contempory Arts, who host the exhibition, were also reassured that FootPrint floor graphics would meet their health and safety requirements for slip test approval, especially in the cafe area.' The exhibition is split into three main areas: the Lower Gallery, Concourse and Upper Galleries. Within the Lower Gallery, 34 individual FootPrint graphics were produced in sizes of 4m x 1.2m. The graphics cover 160 square metres of floor space and consist of a solid black background with multi-coloured lines radiating into the room, with each coloured line leading to a specific model of the various projects. These in turn link to large text based descriptions on the wall next to the related project, detailing the concept. The Concourse and Cafe areas consist of 34 floor graphic pieces, produced in various sizes to suit the complicated floor layout. 125 square metres of floor space is covered with a solid black graphic with white lines depicting the surface textures of the projects. Again, these in turn link to imagery applied to the walls. The floor space in the two Upper Galleries, totalling 125 square metres, are also covered in FootPrint. Consisting of 20 individual pieces, the floor graphics in Gallery 1 include aerial shots of Yokohama, London and Barcelona, with Gallery 2 including black and white line drawings of every day items such as trees, trucks, boats and people. Applying the vast quantity of floor graphics was exceptionally straightforward as Brian explains, 'Despite the complexity and overall size of this project it only took us 35-40 hours to apply 410 square metres of FootPrint to the exhibition floor areas'.
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