ARCH4240/50/60.02 – Vertical Arch Design Studio

EARTH & SKY

Faculty: DAVID BELL, Associate Professor

Nature does not proceed in a straight line, it is rather a sprawling development.
Robert Smithson

Observations always involve theory.
Edwin Hubble

1. INTRODUCTION

Although we are bound to the earth by the mystery of gravity, as architects we strive to defy it and reach for the sky, the invisible limbs of which are shaped by that same enigmatic force. At the same time, this distortion of time and space, gravity, relentlessly pulls us toward the center of the earth. This studio will explore the poetics of this strange entity gravity in two projects.

The first project regards the architectural expression of human curios­ity as it extends outward into the larger universe. It will involve the design of a new facility for the Schenectady’s Dudley Observatory, which is the oldest scientific institu­tion in North America. The second project concerns the earth but not in a mundane way; it is instead chthonic and directed toward our awareness of what not only lies upon its surface but also what lies beneath the terrestrial skin. The programmatic focus of the second project turns that same human curiosity inward to explore our common ex­istential predicament. This second project is a response to the challenge presented by this year’s Lyceum Fellowship Competition. Both projects have similar programs as edu­cational and research/creative institutions. However, the specifics of each program focus on what contemporary cultural conventions consider two very different aspects of human curiosity. PROJECT 1 focuses on science and PROJECT 2 focuses on art. We will assume a perspective distinct from the aforementioned conventions and consider that science can be as creative as art and art can be as rational as science. Both the arts and sciences of the past century have struggled with the very real idea that at the cores of their respective pursuits lies a redoubtable epistemologi­cal paradox. Both projects have dramatic sites but each site is the extreme of the other. Project 1 is located on one of the highest points in Albany County. Project 2 is situ­ated in an abandoned quarry.