Thesis: Symposium

The Thesis Symposium event hosted by the Emergent studio on 17th December was a great success. Guests included Associate Professor Adrian Carter and Dr Lars Botin from the university of Aalborg, Professor Geoffrey Broadbent, former head of the School of Architecture at Portsmouth University, current Portsmouth University staff and students as well as some of last years graduated Emergent Studio members. Thanks to all for attending and providing valuable feedback.

Pascal's Lost Wager (with Sam Sclater-Brooks)

Vincula Study

The vincula between the found artefacts, translated into digital data, is manifest in the fabric of the construct. This is infinitely complex at varying levels of magnification.

Vincula study. In this conceptual image the orbs represent the found artefacts.

Duga, Chernobyl

"Duga", the steel giant near Chernobyl, Ukraine

This giant wall of radar antenna was built as a cold war-era early warning radar system.
It was abandoned after the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl on April 26th 1986, and remains only as a technological relic of the cold war Soviet Union.

Pascal's Lost Wager: Conceptual Development

Conceptual Section: The Vault protects that which has been left in the wake of our existence, using it to form the Construct. Interpreting found artefacts transcribed into digital data, the Construct is in perpetual organic growth.



The private quarters of the Transcribe, housed in a salvaged shipping container.
The image bears a sinister parity to the 20th century corporate office worker.



Survivors begin to inhabit salvaged materials



Sketch Model Metamorphosis - Protect / Imprison



"The Vigilant Construct" among the ruins of Havant

Cathedral of Erotic Misery

Precedent - "Cathedral of Erotic Misery", by Kurt Schwitters



Kurt Schwitters' 'Cathedral of Erotic Misery', or 'Merzbau' was an installation/work of art/environment created between 1923-1937 in an apartment in Hannover. Construction of the Merzbau was halted in 1937 as Schwitters was forced to flee Germany after being declared a "degenerate artist" by the Nazi party. It was essentially a physical collage of artefacts found, owned or used by Kurt Schwitters which consumed 6 or more rooms of his family house. The work itself was, in essence, a manifestation of the artists life, and one of the most complex and revered examples of collage in the 20th century.

Inhabiting the Earthquake

Precedent: Lebbeus Woods - Inhabiting the Earthquake

Lebbeus Woods' conceptual project 'inhabiting the earthquake' deals with an abandoned waterfront site in San Francisco. The structures are composed of shards of industrial cut-offs, and use the kinetic energy released by the earthquake in order to transform themselves.

"Earthquakes are the result of natural, tectonic changes in the solid crust of the earth and,
as such, are not inherently catastrophic. Their bad reputation comes from the destruction
to human settlements that accompanies them, when buildings collapse under the stress of
forces produced by earthquakes. This destruction is not the ‘fault’ of earthquakes, but
rather of the buildings, which, even in regions regularly visited by earthquakes, are not
designed to work harmoniously with the violent forces periodically released. So buildings
collapse, usually with considerable loss of life and injuries. The earthquakes are blamed,
as though the purpose of these sublimely unself-conscious phenomena was to damage
and destroy the human. “Earthquake Kills Thousands!” “Killer Quake Strikes!”
“Earthquake Levels Town!” are typical aftermath headlines. What they should say is
“Falling Buildings Kill Thousands!” “Killer Buildings Strike!” “Inadequately Designed
Town Leveled!”

Lebbeus Woods - EARTHQUAKE: A post-biblical view