'SHRINK THIS HOUSE' - Florida InsideOut Competition | [Honorable Mention]
HAVE NO FEAR FOR ATOMIC ENERGY 'CAUSE NONE OF THEM CAN STOP TIME.
Imagine it is the year 2492 and the Earth is still on its way to total exhaustion. Our proposal however is optimistic in that we understand geological time is vast and humankind belongs to a greater system. As the artist Robert Smithson expressed, "it is interesting to take on the persona of a geological agent where man actually becomes part of the process rather than overcoming it."Our suggestion is dialectic similar to Frederick Law Olmstead's Central Park, both on the local level as well as at the scale of Biscayne Bay. The Venetian Islands surrender their core to the landscape while the edges remain densely populated. The structures in the centers of the islands are left to decompose forming an abstract geology - a constant state of entropy. Once the island cores have been taken over by the landscape the existing structures will become insignificant (small) in relation to the vastness of nature. At the scale of the house the artist Gordon Matta-Clark represents the fragile nature of human construction. His project 'Splitting", suggests that even a large building (relatively speaking) such as house could be viewed and understood as if it were a cardboard model. Our proposal reinforces the house as a ruin with the landscape penetrating the 'paper' walls. The inhabitants of this changed logic would need no more than a living unit. These contraptions would be composed of the minimal dimensions needed to enclose the most basic functions: eating, sleeping, and hygiene.
Far gone are the days where waste is a by-product of luxury!
