Gensler Seattle recently unveiled ‘Blind Trust’, an interactive exhibit created for the 2018 Seattle Design in Public Festival. Blind Trust challenges visitors to use touch, rather than sight, as their primary means of navigation and interaction with the installation.
Visitors move through three concentric, rectangular extrusions formed by a rope stretched vertically between frames. While these tightly knit rope ‘walls’ appear impenetrable and visually homogenous, many of the ropes are actually elastic, allowing a participant to create an opening.
In order to pass through each successive layer, visitors use their sense of touch to find possible paths. In the center of the rope forest is a clearing, open to the sky. This is intended as a moment of reflection for the participant, still visible to the street, but obfuscated by the layers of ropes.
photography by © Heywood Chan
Project Info:
Architects: Gensler
Location: Occidental Square, 117 S Washington St, Seattle, WA 98104, United States
Lead Architect: Andy Su
Team Members: Amber Fulgham, Daichi Yamaguchi, Dustin Rowland, Erin Osberg, Hong Joon Yang, Kaikang Shen, Keli Dean, Kim Le, Nate Williams, Sebastian Hernandez, Troy Charlesworth
Area: 100.0 ft2
Project Year: 2018
Photographs: Heywood Chan
Project Name: Blind Trust
