Architect’s Eye by SPeeCH Tchoban & Kuznetsov

Sergei Tschoban and Sergey Kuznetsov, partners of the Moscow based architecture studio SPEECH Tchoban & Kuznetsov. As part of this year’s Interni Legacy event at the Università Statale in Milan,

A stainless steel sphere, completely smooth and reflecting, features an LED system to create the image of a huge human eyeball that rotates to look to the sky as well as at visitors, or at visitors, or at the ground, changing the color of the iris and the size of the pupil. Inside the eye, there are images of monuments of the Russian avant-garde, which now lie abandoned: a strong message about the need to conserve our history and cultural legacy.

Thanks to the reflecting effect of the steel, the sphere reproduces and deforms the image of the 18th-century courtyard, to symbolize the intellectual process of the architect who reads and interprets the extraordinary forms of the past. Technology, represented by the mobile effect of the eye, is the key word of the approach that sets apart the activities of Taltos, the partner in the installation: the company specializes in the making of large, very thin sheets of natural stone, reinforced by epoxy resins and supports in fiberglass, carbon or steel. The sheets are ideal for use on airplanes and ships, as refined coverings in interiors, or for countertops.