The Feretory of Architectural Catastrophe
Thesis Award Prize 16’ - Cal Poly SLO
Published in Fresh Meat Journal, issue IX
The outside or exterior is what allows habitation and settlement to exist and not exist. The outside is not a fixed and bounded limit, rather a fluid matter that is defined by progressive waves of movements, or folds. It is between these folds that the inside is defined; the active disjunction of the outside folds specifies and delineates the boundaries of the inside.The interdependency between the outside, and inside, forms a middle ground, where it is best suited for thoughts. It is the point of intersection of two poles, events, or processes which, however temporary, share the same ambiance. The point of coexistence of the outside and inside, their plane of consistence, is of importance to this project.
It is here in the metaphorical space between the inside and the outside, the visible and the invisible, that this thesis project is researched and proposed. Here the Feretory becomes the solution, occupying midair, visible once needed, and invisible otherwise. In the unstable state of political unrest, with jihadists advancing on well preserved ruins, where statues and artifacts are able to be preserved and relocated, but there is no protection for architecture. With the destruction of architectural monuments, a part of history perishes. The Feretory is a call to action in response to the tragic loss of historic monuments in the Middle-East. It offers a shelter to endangered objects of unusual size, locating them as a threat is detected, and gathering them in its hold, removed from danger, and accessible to all.
Removal of architectural eradication is possible only in the most vivid imagination, for here we are able to dispel laws of gravity and physics, thus imagining a solution to the unsolvable problem. Floating in the atmosphere, buoyed up by multitude of condensed helium ballonets, and propelled by special airship propellers located in the tail, the Feretory is camouflaged by reverse imaging its surroundings and displaying the images on its surface, as it floats in the highest levels of the stratosphere. Analysis of internet chatter and social media will guide the airship to monuments under the threat of extermination
