Written in varying sizes on the floor of a hallway in the Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art are the following words: individual, abstract, political, conflict, freedom, spontaneity, urgency, and risk. These words perfectly describe the career and work of featured artist Lebbeus Woods and his unique way of enhancing the world through architecture. The Lebbeus Woods: Experimental Architecture exhibit showcases his extraordinary work from all over the world.

The exhibit comprises not only some of Woods's architectural models, but also drawings and edited photographs from the last 17 years of his work. A large part of Woods's work uses conventional structures that may already be standing and adds on to what is there by using wall extensions.

"[Woods] has produced no brick and mortar edifices," says Richard Armstrong, Henry J. Heinz II director at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

The drawings of the structures imply that they are not built with traditional materials to form one smooth surface or cohesive unit, but are pieced together using numerous materials and textures. Images in the exhibit lean at angles, towering over the observer and giving a sense of how imposing Woods's structures would be.

Woods's works make fascinating use of angles. They are often asymmetrical and can sometimes look as if they were arbitrarily placed. Some of his works blur the lines between art and architecture. His designs on paper are works of art in their own right.

Woods uses aluminum tubing throughout the exhibit, but most prevalently in The Tangle, which he describes as "a drawing in space." Aluminum tubing fills an entire room in an intricate pattern, weaving in and out of itself. Woods says this piece is a metaphor for the unknown. He chose aluminum for its strength, weight, vibrancy, and reflective qualities.

One of Woods's most fascinating projects is his conceptual creation of a community in the air in France, entitled Aerial Paris. Residential areas levitate due to opposing magnetic forces in Earth's electromagnetic field. The houses are made from a combination of metals, wood, and fabric.

Woods was commissioned by the city of Sarajevo in Bosnia for Siege Projects: War and Architecture. Bosnia had suffered a brutal civil war from 1992-1995, and it was Woods's vision to rebuild parts of Sarajevo, but also to leave reminders of the war in buildings and structures to show that the citizens of Sarajevo would never see the world in the same way again. In his drawings, Woods developed structures that were meant to serve as add-ons to the remains of buildings that had been destroyed during the war. Woods often paired his writtenthoughts about the war with photographs and design sketches.

Woods also proposed a new design for the WorldTradeCenter site. His design, The Ascent, is a 39 million square-foot vertical memorial park with a series of stations where visitors may read about September 11. Visitors would camp and vacation in this monumental structure, which would hold a host of ledges, resting places, camps, escalators, interactive displays, hotels, restaurants, vistas, and educational  entertainment. At the top of the center would be the "summit," a place where visitors could study the repercussions of 9/11. Woods sees this space as a "window into past, present, and future worlds, and as a place where arguments can be informed by new perspectives and possibilities." This project holds a special place in Woods's heart due to Ground Zero's close proximity to Woods's own teaching, living, and drawing space.

Woods, a 64-year-old American, is considered a master at drawing who frequently incorporates social and political issues into his structural designs. He started working in experimental architecture in the '70s after working 10 years with a more conventional architecture firm. Woods says of his unique work, "Architecture, including experimental architecture, aspires to be in the mainstream. It is confronting difficult ideas and problems in the hope of improving the human condition, both in particular places and, by example, in a general way." Woods often proposes projects in areas of social or political upheaval, including Berlin, Havana, New York, Sarajevo, and TaichungCity. 

The Carnegie Museum of Art collection is the largest presentation of Woods's work ever mounted in the United States, displaying 12 projects.

Support for the exhibit was provided by the Ann and William Boyd Jr. Fund for Architecture, Elise Jaffe, and Jeffrey Brown. Special support was provided by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago. The Lebbeus Woods: Experimental Architecture exhibit will be in Pittsburgh until January 16.