2.
Displacement ; Six Feet Under
Displacement; six feet under, 2022
We are all becoming increasingly aware of how the world is disappearing in front of us. Countries and their people are being displaced by war, famine, the loss of liberties, and climate change. What’s new? We have been watching the headlights of a train getting larger for decades, pretending it is stopped at a distant station. But it is not.
This studio focuses on designing an embassy for nations facing displacement due to rising ocean levels and coastal erosion. This nation is already so impoverished it cannot afford to have an embassy in our capital. Ironically Tuvalu is also a country where the carbon barrons like to park their super yachts. The studio works on a site along the Potomac River in Washington DC George Town that is expected to be underwater in the coming decades. Coincidentally it is also the site of the current Swedish and Icelandic Embassies.
Wall Section
I make the shape using the steel frame and then wrap the building with strings differently. The strings can be tied or adjusted to enter the light.
People can access the different buildings using the bridge. When people across the bridge, it looks like people are being sucked in and out of a building because of the strings. In the roof top of public building, the strings come down from above. It creates shade for people to rest.