Patterns of Speculation

SFMOMA Explores Unconventional Approach to Exhibiting Architecture 

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) features Patterns of Speculation: J. Mayer H., the first solo museum exhibition of work by the German architecture studio J. Mayer H.

Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Art (SFMOMA) and Henry Urbach, SFMOMA's Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design, the exhibition is unorthodox in that it combines two approaches to showing architecture in a gallery: video documentation of the studio's built work and an environment, designed by J. Mayer H., that presents the architect's spatial language at full scale.

Known for its commitment to a high level of formal and conceptual research, Berlin-based J. Mayer H. is one of the leading architectural studios in Europe, where more than 35 projects have been completed or are now under way.

Central to the studio's experimental approach is a deep engagement with a ubiquitous yet often ignored image type: data protection patterns, such as those found lining bank envelopes and shipping labels.

These patterns-typically composed of numbers, letters, or logos-serve to conceal other information, forming what Jurgen Mayer H., the principal of J. Mayer H., calls "information mist."

Data protection patterns have become a fertile terrain for J. Mayer H. as the studio translates these patterns across media and scales to express its distinctive design language.