RESEARCH IN RESIDENCE #2: Anna Puigjaner / MAIO
Unworlding CUBEX
Louis Herman De Koninck’s iconic CUBEX kitchen system started to be commercialized in 1931 widespreading modern cooking principles in Belgium for decades. Based on a functional 60cm modular system, its layout promoted efficiency and hygienic principles all the while reinforcing gendered constructs around reproduction. Architecture -and domestic spaces in particular- have historically contributed to promoting and perpetuating biased social models around care practices.
The exhibition Unworlding CUBEX critically revisits the original design, speculating on new potential forms of kinship and domestic labour. Anna Puigjaner (MAIO) is the second researcher to re-exhibit CIVA’s collections through the program of Research in Residence, following her research Kitchenless Cities, where the elimination of the kitchen from the house allows the domestication of the urban sphere.
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MAIO is an architectural office based in Barcelona which work, linked to feminist studies, focuses on the design of domesticities capable of dismantling social biases. MAIO’s work has been exhibited at MOMA, New York, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, Royal Academy, London, Art Institute of Chicago and Storefront for Art and Architecture, and published in magazines such as Monocle, Domus, Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, A+U and Detail among others. MAIO has been awarded several times including 2019 Young Talent Award 2019 AD, 2018 The Plan Award, 2017 FAD Opinion Award for Architecture, 2016 FAD Award for Ephemeral Interventions, 2015 FAD Award 2015 for Thought and Criticism, and 2014 Arquia/Proxima Award.
