> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Architectural Poetry of Lebbeus Woods - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/the-architectural-poetry-of-lebbeus-woods/ - Published: 2013-07-01T17:28:00.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T16:18:04.000Z - Description: LOS ANGELES — “Yeah, yeah, Lebbeus Woods: conceptual architecture ... ” said a friend and recent architecture school grad just before I dodged beach traffic and made my way downtown for a new exhibit at The Southern California Institute of Architecture “ ... never built anything.” - Author: Michael Gabel - Tags: Art, Architecture, Lebbeus Woods, Photo Essays, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:59 (2012, 2013, part 2) ![(all photographs by the author for Hyperallergic)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave16.jpg) Lebbeus Woods, “Earthwave” (1997/2013) (all photographs by the author for Hyperallergic) LOS ANGELES — “Yeah, yeah, [Lebbeus Woods](https://hyperallergic.com/remembering-radical-theoretical-architect-lebbeus-woods/): conceptual architecture … ” said a friend and recent architecture school grad just before I dodged beach traffic and made my way downtown for a new exhibit at the [Southern California Institute of Architecture](http://www.sciarc.edu/?ref=hyperallergic.com) “ … never built anything.” Although “The [Light Pavilion](https://hyperallergic.com/chengdus-luminary-pavilion/)”— of his design — stands prominently in Chengdu, China, the late Woods would have taken the jab with a grin. A non-architect’s architect (never degreed nor licensed), his experimental designs are meant to explore the very definition of “unbuilt.” So when the exhibition team at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) rolled out one of Woods’s plans over a queer triangular island of concrete in the heart of Los Angeles’ Arts District, they may or may not have been surprised to watch a steel vector field clamor out onto the pavement. “Earthwave”was initially designed by Lebbeus Woods and Christoph a. Kumpusch in collaboration with Adam Orlinski, and it is based on a Lebbeus Woods drawing from 1997\. The 18’x18’, two-and-half-ton “inhabitable drawing” stands unguarded and is meant to be experienced like the jungle gym gone wrong it is. But, save for a skyward POV, the site forces the viewer to consider the piece against a backdrop of murals, eateries, artist lofts, and distant skyscrapers. “Architecture is war,” [said](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568980116/hyperallergic-20?ref=hyperallergic.com) Woods. War against the established, the approved, the built. Only in experimental beginnings do we find relief. And what does this mean for “Earthwave” now that it’s built? Woods went on: “I am an architect, a constructor of worlds, a sensualist who worships the flesh, the melody, a silhouette against the darkening sky. I cannot know your name. Nor you can know mine. Tomorrow, we begin together the construction of a city.” ![earthwave2](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave2.jpg) ![earthwave3](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave3.jpg) ![earthwave4](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave4.jpg) ![earthwave5](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave5.jpg) ![earthwave6](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave6.jpg) ![earthwave7](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave7.jpg) ![earthwave8](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave8.jpg) ![earthwave9](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave9.jpg) ![earthwave10](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave10.jpg) ![earthwave17](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave17.jpg) ![earthwave11](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave11.jpg) ![earthwave12](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave12.jpg) ![earthwave13](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave13.jpg) ![earthwave14](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave14.jpg) ![earthwave15](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/07/earthwave15.jpg) *Lebbeus Woods’s “Earthwave” can be found in Traction Triangle at Bloom Square (intersection of Traction Avenue, Rose Street and East 3rd Street, Los Angeles).*