The bubble is a wonder of surface tension. In its architectural interpretation, the bubble can be understood as a feat of engineering or as a metaphor for an enclosed hermetic environment. As such, the bubble emerges, in the architect Cedric Price’s words, “in any shape or any size” as a powerful symbol of the future, or becomes synonymous with the condition of isolation at the level of the individual, the sealed building, or in the planning of self-sustaining neighbourhoods, towns, or cities.

This project, developed with Cabinet editor-in-chief Sina Najafi in parallel with his research in the CCA collection for the magazine’s forthcoming “Bubbles” issue, is informed as much by Cabinet’s approach as its content. Through a wide-ranging, multidisciplinary exploration of the world around us, Cabinet presents an ongoing catalogue of the amazing, the mundane, the peripheral, and the found-by-chance. In this spirit of discovery, Sina Najafi also imagined possible new additions to the museum’s holdings. This wish list, sent to the CCA as a series of postcards each bearing the phrase “Wish it was there,” forms part of this display.

Starting From… is a series that explores current publications on architecture and highlights materials in the CCA collection.

Starting From… The Bubble is the result of a conversation between Meredith Carruthers (Coordinator, Programs) and Sina Najafi (Editor-in-chief, Cabinet magazine), with ideas contributed by Lev Bratishenko (Researcher, Programs), Esra Akcan (Visiting Scholar, Study Centre), Louise Désy (Curator, Photographs), Howard Shubert (Curator, Prints and Drawings), and Judy Silverman (Head, Collection Cataloguing).