Durable: The Digital Collection

Explore the online exhibition to find everything that you would find in the gallery at BSA Space, as well as special insights from the curators through audio clips, videos, and special articles.

View the online exhibition here

NOTE: The BSA Gallery is open to the public 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM every Monday-Friday. We encourage all gallery visitors to reserve timed-entry tickets at least 24 hours in advance, but also accept drop-in visitors. Please use this link to reserve your ticket. For more information about visiting BSA, check out our Visit page.

DURABLE: Sustainable Material Ecologies, Assemblies, and Cultures is a design imperative to construct sustainable environments that promote not only long material life cycles, but also enduring cultural significance. Crucial to a sustainable architecture is the design of buildings that will endure for generations while also constantly adapting to ever-changing cultural needs. This exhibition examines the durability of materials of robust architecture that remain useful and valued despite the vicissitudes of time. Three domains of durability—Durable Material Ecologies, Durable Material Assemblies, and Durable Material Cultures—will provide a lens through which to focus on four architectural materials: wood; masonry; steel; and concrete.

DURABLE challenges architects, clients, and the general public to consider the lifespan and the global and local impact of buildings by demonstrating how the design for durability can shape a sustainable future.

The exhibition will demonstrate that to justify the large material, energy, effort, and financial investment to construct a building also demands that it lasts a long time. The visual information, the interactive 3D material displays, the public engagement, and the educational outreach offer a broad array of experiences for people of all ages and interests to engage with the cultural and environmental benefits of design that embraces the full material life cycle of architecture.

DURABLE is a direct extension of the research conducted by the winning 2017-2019 AIA Latrobe Prize team on “Future-Use Architecture: Design for Persistent Change.” This exhibition aligns with the aspirations of the Latrobe Prize to advance knowledge in the profession and increase public awareness of a broad definition of sustainability, one that creates long-lasting, high-performing, adaptable, and culturally-significant built environments.

*All posted exhibition dates are subject to change*