Langlands & Bell

Infinite Loop focuses on a new generation of architecture being commissioned by internet and technology giants like Apple and Facebook and investigates how these structures convey notions of power and human interaction in the 21st century. Some of the biggest and most successful companies in the world the global internet and technology giants are exercising an increasingly profound influence over all our lives. They continue to grow exponentially, becoming ever more powerful by the day as they comprehensively reshape the cultures, politics and economies of societies all over the planet.

Most of these companies began as start-ups on university campuses, or in spare rooms and garages in the 1970s and 80s, but they are now commissioning a new generation of iconic purpose built headquarters. Over the past five years using the internet, we’ve researched and made models of many of these buildings as they are being built; Infinite Loop takes it’s name from the address of the massive, futuristic new Apple HQ, a circular building a mile in circumference, designed by Foster and Partners at Cupertino in California. Others include the Gates Foundation, Seattle, by NBBJ; IBM, Beijing, by Next Architects; Nvidia, Santa Clara, by Gensler, and the huge new Facebook headquarters, the largest open-plan office in the world, by Frank Gehry at Menlo Park.

As with the cathedrals of the middle ages, the baroque palaces and gardens of the enlightenment, and the factories and railway stations of the industrial revolution, one of the things we’re exploring is whether the new architecture of the internet giants is era defining – the architecture of the 21st century, and whether architecture still has this role to play in the information age.

In Conversation
Langlands & Bell in conversation with Janet Street-Porter moderated by Charlotte Mullins. 6pm. Wednesday 24 May. To book a place please contact Alan Cristea Gallery.

Infinite Loop is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an interview with the artists.

Alan Cristea Gallery
43 Pall Mall
London
SW1Y 5JG

Photos of installation at Alan Cristea Gallery by Peter White