Media Release

INNOVATIVE ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION FOR MoFO

 

Invitation for Expressions of Interest for Design of New Museum of Future Objects to be announced in coming weeks.

 

Details of the architectural design competition for MoFO – the Museum of Future Objects – will be communicated shortly. The brief will be an open invitation and submissions from overseas and local design teams will be welcomed.

 

Scheduled to open in 2016, MoFO is an ambitious project inspired by the vision of reclusive experimental physicist Sumus Deridet, who is reputed to have created traversable wormholes. While dedicated to presenting the varied collections that Deridet has amassed over his life work (including perpetual motion machines spanning all ages and cultures, both real and imaginary), the museum will also function as the ideal mechanism through which his radical reformulation of ideas about time and space can be put into practice.

 

The physical design of MoFO will be shaped around the museum's core mission: perpetuating the future, not simply preserving it.  Most innovatively, MoFO’s gallery format will extend beyond generic models of “white cubes” and “black boxes” to include radically new types of gallery spaces, such as Quantum Containers. Developed via research currently being conducted by the Institute of Future Objects (InFO), these environments function to control, contain and collection radiation by distributing electro-static charges around its exterior surface. Energy from these containers can then be captured and stored.

 

Identified for development on the previous site of the Keely Motor Company in Philadelphia, the museum’s facilities will include over 2,500 square meters of exhibition space and 5,000 square meters for conservation and storage, a visitor center, an advanced research facility, laboratory and library, and gallery shop, subject to the future detailed design.

 

Mr Rufus Snodgrass, the Director of the Museum of Future Objects said, "MoFO is exemplified by its motto: Futurity in Perpetuity. In striving to meet this lofty ambition, we will be looking for a design team who share our values and ambitions to be a museum that shapes the future."

 

Head of Collections, Dr Diego Baccus said, "MoFO is a project that is a quantum leap from what we currently understand the museum to be. The building should be a beacon for our commitment to this by providing a radically new conception of time and space."

 

Submissions will be assessed by a world-class panel of jurors drawn from diverse fields including art, science and architecture. The review process will be co-chaired by the Director of the Museum of Future Objects, Rufus Sodgrass, and Dr Reginald Moy, lead research scientist of the Institute of Future Objects. Up to six design teams will be shortlisted from the open invitation upon recommendation by the jury panel. They will then be invited to submit concept designs that are original, sustainable, cost effective, and align with the future ambitions of MoFO. Once appointed, the chosen design team will work closely with MoFO to develop the detailed design for the building.

 

 

Further details and competition guidelines will be made available on the MoFO website. For more information contact info@themofo.org

 

23 March 2013