New build (red brick architecture)

The Red Brick architectural interventions were designed as a triumvirate of installation projects, which transformed buildings by temporarily cladding them with red brick printed MDF panels. ‘The New Build’ installation was the first version of the series, ‘Red Brick Architecture’. These architectural interventions were designed as a triumvirate of projects: ‘New Build’ at Oxford University; ‘Renovation’ in a suburban detached street in South West London (20.8.05 -18.9.05), and ‘The Decorative Arts’ in a gallery and warehouse building in Turin, (solo show, 2005, and permanent site 2007). Each artwork builds on and explores very different architectural and contextual relationships with the red brick pattern and thus with each other. The Long Room at New College, University of Oxford, was the first location to be chosen for the work, covering a building with a combined surface area of more than 20,000 square feet. By bringing the red brick pattern to Oxford University Woods brought brown field site aesthetics to an architectural and educational heritage site. A suburban detached street in South West London was the second site for the architectural makeover. This site provided a domestic context for the project, concentrating on the DIY nature of home improvement. The third site was a warehouse building which is part of a large Italian Art Foundation. This context explored the many industrial architectural makeovers that exist in inner cities. Woods juxtaposes architectural forms, using the red brick skin in various physical manifestations. As the triumvirate is now being completed the relationships between the buildings become clearer. The ‘Red Brick Architecture’ series has been discussed by Woods at ‘Art in The Public Sphere’ (Tate Britain, March 29th 2006). ‘Newbuild’ features in the V&A book ‘Prints Now' a worldwide survey into important print-based contemporary art (2006)