Baguetti Bambino

Built In, a group show at the Neutra VDL House curated by Marta Gallery, Erik Benjamins, and the VDL, asks artists, architects, and designers from a range of backgrounds to produce site-specific works for the house. To me, a built-in has utility and feels like it is part of the house. This evaporative cooler is meant to provide thermal modulation to an area of the VDL House that is chronically overheated while integrating visually into the only non-glass portion of the penthouse level. Terra cotta baguettes, manufactured for use as sun shades in large-scale building facades, hold water that slowly saturates the porous material. A fan blows air across the baguettes, and as the air evaporates the water on the baguette surfaces, heat is pulled from the air by the phase change. The design of the cooler references Neutra’s use of industrially manufactured materials in a residential setting, of experimental technical control systems, and of mirrors to create illusory spatial experiences throughout the house. The name references the terra cotta tubes (“baguettes”)and the original wall paint color from Decovel, called Bambi.