Washateriacafeteria laundromatautomat
- Publication date
- 1999
- Publisher
Abstract
Using the idea of an architectural design thesis as praxis, two buildings were designed to both talk about and perform the thesis. The ideas at work in the project include consideration of objects, people, places and things in shifting relationships with each other. Using collecting and collections as a starting point, these relationships are made visible through moments of saturation, framing, exaggeration and multiplication. The thesis building (buildings) is a part of several larger collections within Houston.
Initially the thesis collected a series of spaces and places within Houston. Called Marvels, they allowed for an exploration of marvelous characteristics and provided new terms specific to urban Life in Houston. The thesis buildings were first understood as one of that series. They needed to be believable as actual spaces in Houston, but also marvelous. The buildings are part of a collection of buildings within their immediate neighborhood--a type (a Houston phenomena modeled after villa savoy) and a strip (an urban situation found in many 20th century American cities). The scales of the collections are embedded. Despite being singular things in a larger collection, the thesis buildings contain or enclose a series of smaller collections as well; a collection of experiences, views and moments, a collection of activities in time--see Breughel, a collection of activities in time and in relationship to each other and to objects (food, laundry), a collection of terms of engagement, the dial, the door handle, etc. These collections are organized as a field with two enclosures--see The Museum of Jurassic Technology (a whole which contains multiple wholes)--or as three fields, two of which are interiors