Sooo… what I’ve been thinking about:
Well, to start off, I’m interested in extreme environments… and what I mean by that are environments that are coming upon new problems with the changes of the world (ex. Global warming, rising sea levels, hole in ozone), or places that are severely affected by natural disasters (ex. Earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.). So far I haven’t decided on a specific place or what their issue is, but two that I’ve looked at are the island nation of Tuvalu, and Ahmadabad an enormous city in India. Tuvalu is an island that is being threatened by the rising sea levels. It could very possibly go completely under leaving its citizens with nothing. Ahmadabad is a large city, packed with people, and is always threatened by the possibility of an earthquake. There was a large one a few years back, which destroyed so much of the city, and left a lot of people stranded. Buildings in the city were rebuilt in the same hasty fashion, leaving it vulnerable for a similar devastating disaster. I am still not completely set on either of these two sites or the environments that come along with them. If the fact of having been to them is a large influencing factor, well, I’ve never been to the first, but have been to the second, and don’t know many other places I have been to that fall into my category of extreme environments.
Beyond that, I’ve been thinking about the word ecologies and how that fits into these kinds of places. An environment that relates to its living organisms, or the interactions between the environment and its living organism. The idea of biological systems that can be adapted to the place and its needs, something that can grow if needed, or be assembled in a variety of ways to be able to relate to the immediate environment interests me.
I’m not really sure where I could go with that… or if it is a good idea to go with it because I’m not really sure how it becomes resolute if it has a variable. Is it okay to have that variability? Or is that a trap?
Do my words make sense, or am I just swimming in my head? Comments, thoughts, ideas, inspirational things are welcome!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Makes sense, and could be interesting.
ReplyDeleteI think you need to do a couple of things to start narrowing down the focus: catalog a series of "extreme environments." List as many as you can and then start to classify them.
At that point, you can start to get a sense of what might interest you most.
There is a whole body of work that has tried to address these issues. Look at Shigeru Ban's work with the UN, or Aravena's in Chile. Also that book "Design Like You Give a Damn." If you haven't seen it already, it's worth looking at only to get a sense of the breadth of the thought (though not much depth to the book).
I think variability can work, provided the variables are clearly delineated (by you). A kit of parts that posits "If this set of situations, then deploy this set of solutions" can be interesting, but quite challenging.
Frankly, it's much easier (to have a successful thesis experience) to just pick a specific site with a specific problem and design for it.