To Measure Pompeii

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: 'To Measure Pompeii' is an exhibit collated by Eva Prats and Ricardo Flores through their practice Flores & Prats. It was selected for 'Go Away Come Back', a collective exhibition of architecture, travel, research and experience held in Fremantle, October 2013. Part of WA Architecture Week, it addressed narratives of travel, contemplating the shifts that occur from departure to return. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The video featured a slide projector flicking through fragmentary drawings of four Pompeii houses completed by students of ETSAB (Barcelona School of Architecture) on a field trip to Pompeii. These artefacts physically recorded aspects of the houses that intrigued the observer, progressively revealing documentation processes throughout the slides. The drawings displayed act as both observational drawings and drawings that explain projectual qualities discovered in the house being studied. Ancient examples are appropriated with the ambition of using them to learn how to design, drawing on antiquity to project into contemporary worlds, a movement in time, observing history without distance. This project demonstrates the reflective nature of Prats' practice-based research investigations. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: The significance of this Creative Work is evidenced by selection for exhibition at The Moores Building Contemporary Art Gallery. It was one of thirteen works by local and international architects curated by Robyn Creagh and Shannon Lyons and was supported by Peter Hunt Architects, the Australian Institute of Architects (WA Chapter), WA Architecture Week, and Faculty of Humanities and School of Built Environment, Curtin University. The exhibition was reviewed in Architecture AU (Curnow, 9 January 2014).