Mechanical Romanticism

The trajectory of this studio can ultimately be broken down into two chapters.

 

Chapter 1:

Includes the gathering of a collection of mechanically operated time-telling components--this was later broadened to general machinery. These artifacts were then integrated into a curiosity cabinet. the latter consists of a collection space at 34' x 21' and garden space at 55' x 21'. Ultimately, this exercise led to an exploration of wall, floor, and ceiling conditions.

 

Chapter 2:

The general objective of this proposal is to design an archive for collection through the imaginary reconstruction of ancient Rome. This results in a theoretical emergence of “the hanging city,” or as Piranesi phrased it, “Cittá Pensile.” This hanging city is derived from a cyclical process in which architecture is imagined as a set of narratives informed through contemplative drawings, models, and hybrid drawing-models [drodels or drawdles].

 

“When Egypt hosted the COP27 climate change talks last month, there was intense debate, raising pressure on politicians to step up action to tackle the climate crisis. But when the so-called COP15 biodiversity talks started last week in freezing Montreal, there was near silence on the global stage.”
 

10, 000 years later, Rome is gradually flooding. Artificially Intelligent [AI] machines have been programmed to build a hydroelectric dam to save the population. The following images illustrate the construction of the hydroelectric dam to power the machines intended to save humanity. Programmatically,
the hydroelectric dam contains a museum of the machine collection and a manufacturing center for their self-generation. Castel Sant’Angelo has been repurposed as a blast furnace for the production of the raw materials needed to continue the manufacturing of the Artificially intelligent machines.