TS PROPOSAL

It would be wrong to maintain that the function of architectural enclosure is solely to keep out inclement weather.

Inclemency is not exclusively meteorological and architecture can fulfill the role of an environmental censor also by tackling the urban pathology of diffuse sameness, of inescapable communion with its incessant connectivity.

         The project aims at developing a linear type meant to break the homogeneity of the Generic City into Contrade: isolated enclaves were inhabitants retreat in the attempt to retain and preserve the word in absolute consonance with a their set idea of it.  Retreat becomes a new architectural paradigm aimed at preserving and defending the integrity of its content against undesired inroads preventing entropy of meaning and energy-transfers. The recipient (or linear type) sets the boundaries by restricting within limits each Contrada. It therefore establishes a system of opening and closing that simultaneously isolates different Contrade and makes them accessible. The Recipient is therefore the only architectural tool in the hands of the citizens. It is the method through which they appropriate a part of the generic city and re-appropriate their identity.

PRECEDENTS:

PROPOSAL:

I would like to retain the spatial aspects of the interior of these precedents although fulfilling a different structural role, that is a gradual vertical grade change that does not support anything but itself.

Initially the structure is ribs supporting a mass of leaning earth which is then gradually excavated and supported while it’s being excavated. I would like to investigate how it could be supported when it’s initially built as a leaning wall and then how it will be reinforced as the individual occupants excavate within its form, as in there should be an overall plan for structure that each excavator ads to as they progress.