Hard work does pay off. The above image is the competition boards submitted by a team of my third year students for the D3Space.org Housing Tomorrow Competition. This entry by Mark Lo, Tyler Laskowski, Sheena McNeice, Dane Knudson and Nick Belkowski recieved a special mention in the Alternate Typology category. As far as I can tell from the competition’s website, that category didn’t exist, so it seems that the jury created it specifically to recognize the team’s work. In addition, this was an open international competition for both professionals and students, so it is quite an honor to be one of eleven submittals to be recognized.

This team struggled at first to arrive at a consensus and had a dismal review with their first idea, but they pulled together and came up with this idea the following class and I knew right then that they were on to something. Here is their description of the project:

.consume material goods

Within contemporary society, infatuation with material possessions has lead to a lifestyle controlled by the impulsive pursuit of novelty and excitement through the consumption of material goods.  In a consumer culture dependent on media and advertising, these material goods have become a measurement of our subjective well-being as well as a replacement for many experiential aspects of our lives.  This cycle of consumption continues to progressively dominate our lives to such an extreme point that buying the ‘latest and greatest’ no longer adds satisfaction to our lives and we begin to question the purpose of our existence.

.consume experience

Because the act of consuming is an inherent human trait, we turn to the consumption of experience to reclaim the experiential aspect of our lives lost in our previous obsession with the material.  Instead of continuing the endless cycle of material consumption, experience is now the object to be consumed, opening us up to a lifestyle of adventure that is no longer defined by the “stuff” we buy.

.camp URBAN

The proposed Camp Urban is driven by existential experience, embracing the various levels of adventure associated with the tradition of camping; from the RV tourist to the mountaineer extremist.  In its form and materiality, Camp Urban celebrates the city as the natural human habitat in recognition that the vast majority of our planet’s population is, and is projected to be increasingly so, living in urbanity.  Camp urban Chicago would be the first in a global network of these metropolitan destinations, offering a weekend excursion to the 40 hour/week worker or a temporary residence to the urban nomad.

One thing I’d like to point out about the boards is that the image of the building is not a 3D rendering It is a photograph of one of the best models I’ve seen created in school. The model was huge, with its base it was about 6′ tall. Here are some poor images from my cell phone of it (click for larger):

The entire third year studio was the hardest working group of students I have had the pleasure to teach.

Link to the official competition site:  http://d3space.org/competitions/

Over the past few weeks, my second year design studio has been diligently endeavoring to understand the architecture of death. The site for the project is a beautiful undeveloped area on the Spokane river in an appropriately bucolic cemetery. We visited the site again today and it was an interesting experience as the group was taken on a tour of the facilities by the President of the funeral home. For some of the students it was an unnerving experience, particularly when they were shown the cremation ovens and realized that the long rectangular cardboard boxes lined up in the room actually contained bodies destined for their two hour fire bath. It truly was a priceless moment.

On my previous visit I was able to spend quite a bit of time alone in the mausoleum at twilight. I won’t deny that being alone in in the long dimly lit corridors surrounded by bodies of those that have past was a bit creepy at first. It made me certainly more aware of my mortality. During that time my mind wandered to thoughts about what I would want done to my body at the end of life. Unsurprisingly, the inner designer began to work. The final design problem I suppose. I will save that discussion for another time as I’m still designing! However I began to turn a critical eye at the surroundings I was in, the repeated motifs, the overwhelming blandness of it all put in stark relief by the vain attempt of the painted polyester flowers to color this pallidness.

I was in a suburb of death.

The casket showroom; the car dealership of Thanatos. Offering the latest in top of the line post-life luxury; a $10,000 polished stainless steel casket to transport you into the afterlife. That particular casket was already sold and the man who purchased it comes in periodically to admire it. Has he taken it for test drive? The cremation urn showroom was like the camera island at the local Best Buy. All tightly arranged and diverse in their materiality and size and use. Can’t decide who gets to take home beloved Aunt Judy? No problem get matching lockets to keep her close or perhaps a small no spill vial that you can toss in the junk drawer when you find out that she didn’t leave you her fortune.

Even more striking, this suburb had its own landfill and a slum too! There was a small dumping ground hidden in the trees. Hundreds of headstones and the miscellaneous debris of the death industry was strewn about. Some of the granite and marble epitaphs were broken but others appeared to be in fine condition and one had to wonder if they were relegated there by typographical error or something more disturbing like foreclosure on their plot.

Adjacent to the dump was an overgrown area that featured forlorn looking crosses resigned to struggle with the natural vegetation. A small rusty sign announced that this was an “un-endowed area” like any poor neighborhood. And like other poor neighborhood’s even this slum is subject to gentrification. Complete with the vinyl fence and the polyester flowers…