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Exhibition: Playboy Architecture 1953-1979
Exhibition in collaboration with Princeton University about the way Playboy magazine used architecture and design as important tools to shape a new identity for the American male. Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979 explores the crucial role of modern architecture–buildings, interiors, furniture, cities and product design–in constructing the Playboy imaginary. The exhibition shows how architecture was mobilized to shape a new sexual and consumer identity for the American male and how architectural taste became critical to success in the art of seduction. Through an extraordinary quantity of architecture and architects featured in Playboy, the magazine played an important role in informing the public, particularly American men, about design and architecture in relation to literature, politics, art, lifestyle and fashion. Looking at the changing nature of Playboy architecture not only provides a way of understanding how Playboy’s project changed from the mid 1950s to the late 1970s; it also reveals how Playboy’s idealized world became a reality that was ingrained into America’s national identity and had a massive global impact.
Playboy Architecture 1953-1979, September 29 – February 10, at NAiM/Bureau Europa, Maastricht, Netherlands
Monday, November 5th, 2012
Villa Solaire by Jérémie Kœmpgen Architecture
Haus G12 by (se)arch
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