'Reed Experience'
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That is what it all has lead to...
An experience rather than a dwelling, an infinite possibility rather than a prescribed program,
freedom of form rather than limitation of construction.
And one can say that it is speculative, it won't work, it is not real;
but here I am - creating my own reality.
┏┅┄┿┅┄┙
Link to full resolution
My project is a festival.
A festival of cultures, tribes, folklore, like Fiesta de la Candelaria I based it on, but
with a modern twist of music, dance, art, design, food and all things festive.
My dwelling is an area.
An area where dwellers create their own spaces, program them according to their wishes and are able to modify them
throughout the festival, throughout a day or within an hour.
My design is a suggestion.
A suggestion that is provided by the means of columns, spans of grid 'ceiling' and cores,
where the utility channels, such as water, electricity, gas, are located.
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step 1
.know your dwellers.
Learn the people who will be interacting with your community. Anticipate what they need.
Speculate on what kind of people they are.
Be wrong yet thoughtful.
step2
.suggest.
Install columns and grid spans over the area. Use ground profile to imagine what the space can be.
Create a surface - grass or gravel - to further suggest the possible use. Add cores, where the additional structural support is necessary.
They will provide 'points of attraction' that will guide the design of the dwelling.
step 3
.provide.
Make walls (reed) accessible. Give it to people to use and modify. Allow walls to become a ceiling, a floor.
Let it bound, separate, define, join, capture, hide, enclose and whatever 'walls' are meant or not meant to do.
Link to full resolution
step 4
.witness.
Be a spectator of the natural phenomena. As a designer you've done your job. Now the dwelling 'grows'.
It emerges with the people, it arranges itself in clusters, it attracts to the points - cores.
The festival is live. People enjoy the music, performances, they meet each other, and with that - the dwelling changes.
Link to full resolution
step 5
.join in.
Enjoy.
Link to full resolution
Link to full resolution
┏┅┄┿┅┄┙
This dwelling, or whatever you may call it, is experiential. It allows you to interact with the component - the wall, with the system - the grid, and with each other - the dwellers.
Materiality and form here play a big rule as one becomes surrounded by reed, similarly to the vernacular community of Uros. Just like in the vernacular architecture the dwellers are the architects and have a power to create. They add and form the reed walls, attaching them to the provided grid. They choose what those spaces act like and what they are meant to be doing in them.
Moments are important. In the moment I understand that I have the power to create the situation right here, right now. I could walk past and say nothing, I could stop and talk, I could do whatever, and create a moment. Every moment is my moment to create.
An experience rather than a dwelling, an infinite possibility rather than a prescribed program,
freedom of form rather than limitation of construction.
And one can say that it is speculative, it won't work, it is not real;
but here I am - creating my own reality.
┏┅┄┿┅┄┙
A festival of cultures, tribes, folklore, like Fiesta de la Candelaria I based it on, but
with a modern twist of music, dance, art, design, food and all things festive.
My dwelling is an area.
An area where dwellers create their own spaces, program them according to their wishes and are able to modify them
throughout the festival, throughout a day or within an hour.
My design is a suggestion.
A suggestion that is provided by the means of columns, spans of grid 'ceiling' and cores,
where the utility channels, such as water, electricity, gas, are located.
Integration of the dwelling
.know your dwellers.
Learn the people who will be interacting with your community. Anticipate what they need.
Speculate on what kind of people they are.
Be wrong yet thoughtful.
.suggest.
Install columns and grid spans over the area. Use ground profile to imagine what the space can be.
Create a surface - grass or gravel - to further suggest the possible use. Add cores, where the additional structural support is necessary.
They will provide 'points of attraction' that will guide the design of the dwelling.
step 3
.provide.
Make walls (reed) accessible. Give it to people to use and modify. Allow walls to become a ceiling, a floor.
Let it bound, separate, define, join, capture, hide, enclose and whatever 'walls' are meant or not meant to do.
step 4
.witness.
Be a spectator of the natural phenomena. As a designer you've done your job. Now the dwelling 'grows'.
It emerges with the people, it arranges itself in clusters, it attracts to the points - cores.
The festival is live. People enjoy the music, performances, they meet each other, and with that - the dwelling changes.
step 5
.join in.
Enjoy.
This dwelling, or whatever you may call it, is experiential. It allows you to interact with the component - the wall, with the system - the grid, and with each other - the dwellers.
Materiality and form here play a big rule as one becomes surrounded by reed, similarly to the vernacular community of Uros. Just like in the vernacular architecture the dwellers are the architects and have a power to create. They add and form the reed walls, attaching them to the provided grid. They choose what those spaces act like and what they are meant to be doing in them.
Moments are important. In the moment I understand that I have the power to create the situation right here, right now. I could walk past and say nothing, I could stop and talk, I could do whatever, and create a moment. Every moment is my moment to create.
Moments of interaction
more...
The aim of the project described in this prospectus is to define the main ideas and methods of the vernacular housing and apply them to the dwelling in the urban city. Based on the research of the Uros tribe of the floating islands of lake Titicaca, Peru, the project attempts to re-appropriate the traditional use of totora reed plants as a primary material, it reflects on the inevitable temporarily of the structure and questions the role of an architect in the arrangement and organization of the dwelling.
In an attempt to use the vernacular ideas of self-arrangement, where a role of an ‘architect’ was given to the dwellers of the housing, this project becomes suggestive. In its’ essence, based on the ideas of Stan Allen, the structure of the dwelling creates a ‘field’ defined by a set of conditions and rules to which the ‘boids’ or ‘flocks’ of people are released. Spaces within this field are meant to be formed by people's collective behavior naturally, without a thought of spacial relationship, similarly to the regulation system in ants nest which isn’t purposefully designed but emerges from uncoordinated decisions made by individuals - swarm intelligence. This field is allowed to spread further into the city, creating more possibilities of aggregation. Structures that can be created vary in scale and degree of temporarily.
Located on the outskirts of the small city of Puno, Peru, this project becomes a part of a two week festival of folklore. A large span steel+rope structure with a grid ‘ceiling’ is set up in an open field where areas are prescribed for each of the arriving communities. The community is given a set of flexible flat reed walls modified with the wire mesh. They are used to create an infinite numbers of components - tents, walls, dividers, covers, shelves, doors etc. Those components are then attached to the any point of the grid to create spaces - individual or communal. Only the span, grid, occasional utility cores of water and electricity supply (points of attraction) and the natural elevation and materiality (gravel, grass) of the ground ‘dictate’ or rather ‘suggest’ the arrangement of the dwelling. Within the two weeks of the festival spaces are naturally modified, as people get to know each other, they join in their communities or on the contrary - divide themselves further. The rope grid also appears at points within the city center, where parades and performances take place. It suggests that some components of the dwelling can be brought to the city and modified for the temporary use - shelter, resting area, sun shading, etc. Therefore, there are numerous relationships and scales in which the dwelling functions throughout the festival.
‘Fiesta de la caña’ is a created reality. It is a two week festival in the folklore capital of Peru - Puno. It is more than a touristic attraction, more than a ‘weekend off’; it is a celebration of community, of reed tradition, of suggestive design and freedom. It is an instance where people, movement, space, music, form and functions are captured in a series of moments along the timeline and are spread across the ‘veins’ of the city in metastasis like way.
