Cesar Madrigal
ARCH-4980.1 | Chris Perry, Assistant Professor
EMERGING TECHNOCULTURES
Creating The Next-Generation Artifacts
CESAR MADRIGAL
Utilizing the postwar period of the 50s and 60s as a research foundation, this thesis explores the commercial aviation industry in the context of technological innovation and aesthetic identity. Coupled with the introduction of new materials in modern construction and design, the aircraft developed into a symbolic artifact of the time, representative of the both the culture and the engineering technology that designers had at their disposal. In turn, the commercial plane produced the quintessential image of the postwar era that characterized a new and emerging lifestyle concerned with air travel, luxury, and mobility.
In conjunction with the popularization of airplane travel, another trend unfolded within the Hudson Valley region of New York – that is, corporate industry pollution. This investigation therefore looks into the Hudson Valley’s industrial past and its effect on the area’s environmental systems as a second point of departure, revealing a contaminant dilemma deeply rooted within the Hudson’s riverbed. Simultaneously, this research examines present efforts to ameliorate the pollution crisis, advanced by both environmental non-profit organizations and large corporations.
The final project is a culmination of the postwar investigation as well as the pollution trends of the Hudson Valley region, proposing a mobile and self-sustainable community which travels along the Hudson River. Its agenda is two-fold: to address the environmental needs of the river through a submerged dredging system that treats sediment and material in-house, and to speculatively envision the design as an artifact of its time, providing the foundation of what the emerging lifestyle will be like. The proposal strives to re-claim the river as a source of recreational and ecological life by developing a synthesized design solution that is aware of its past, analyzes the present, and projects towards the future.