This semester called for my views on architecture, focused on a particular interest that would carry me through the Masters year. This was to be shown in an artefact and re-interpreted through a series of tasks given. My interest lay in the struggle between politics and architecture and the following models aim to portray that.
This artefact aimed to address issues behind policy driven architectural interventions. The flaws, as I see them, are shown below.
The first shows a controlling grid and organic overlay to illustrate the natural terrain, undulating and flowing and how our interventions placed on it, start limiting its capabilities.
The second looks at architecture as a catalogue, how the elements we choose for our buildings are merely picked out of predefined books. Zooming in you will be able to identify architectural elements- door handles, columns, pipes and ducts. When we make up our interventions, its just a culmination of the predefined.
The third addresses the issue of time (clock shape) as well as representing a pie chart to examine the issues of statistics and repetition of these issues (shown in the images of policy papers, shacks and slums). We have been repeating the same mistakes in out interventions over and over and the result - people suffering- is clearly apparent.
The fourth is to address the issue why most of our views and interventions don't change. The politics. The small dot is to illustrate the role of architecture in politics as small and without an impact. Is there room for architecture in politics and politics in architecture?
The second task was to reconsider my artefact with a new innovative (hypothetical) technology. In intentionally wanted to overlay a contemporary technology on the old system and chose a ‘camouflage’ material that allowed me to see the making of the individual artefacts. Using card, acetate, wiring and nails, I explored the possible constructs of the models.
The third task required me to watch Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’ and take the spirit of ‘the walls are not what they seem’ in the movie into my artefact. The movie had a George Orwell ‘1984’ influence, bureaucracy and control on the people and a protagonist trying to free himself from the people. The walls in the movie had duct that, for me, represented government surveillance. These ducts were more exposed where government influence was stronger-the ministry, the lay-man’s (Buttle) home, and less where it wasn’t necessary, like in the protagonist’s, ministry worker Sam’s home. When he starts realizing the bureaucratic power, the ducts become exposed (by Tuttle) and they seem to be a ‘big brother’ in the movie. I tried to portray this by modeling the initial artefact as one panel that opens and reveals the things behind the obvious-people suffering, equality articles, eyes, ducts, blank walls- the actual system that is concealed.
The fourth task requested a look at the Arte Povera (poor art) Movement that found Italian artists going against the system in the 1960s using everyday cheap materials to create art. I looked at 4 artists and took their approach to art to influence my model. The first terrain was redone in foil and spray-painted to create an undulating surface. The second gradient was redone with coffee and wine in an ‘alchemist’ way also using label to highlight the commercialism associated with the products. The third was redone with African material, a cultural approach and folded over to keep the pie chart sections. The fourth took a smooth egg surface that is architecture and the imperfections (stones) on it to represent the politics in the industry.
The fifth task required me to re-interpret the artefact in sedimentary layers. I looked at all the previous layers and considered an amalgamation of these in one model showing layers of issues dealt with.
