What the Ball?!

2024 Taubman Architecture Ball
Saylor Allen, Stephanie Dután, Shravan Iyer, Roy Khoury, Vanessa Lekaj


What the Ball?! was created for the 2024 Taubman Architecture Ball titled Frameworks, a night that celebrated creation throughout the college through student-built installations. Constructed entirely from pink studio scraps, the piece suspended the remnants of the semester, gathering foam fragments, ribbons, feathers, failed models, and taped-together leftovers into a single oversized ornament that hovered between celebration and collapse.

The object was intentionally excessive. Its surface was layered with offcuts and awards, wrapped in the residue of architectural production. Second-place ribbons, curled tape, and paper letters spelling FRAMEWORK appeared across the sphere, both mocking and embracing the language of competition and display that shapes the discipline.

Instead of producing something new, the installation reassembled what already existed. The discarded and decorative were reintroduced as a collective monument to process. Within the context of the ball, it acted as both prop and participant, a camp object that reflected the joy, exhaustion, and humor of shared studio life.