ARCHITECTURAL ART WORKS
Under Construction Memorial
Construction accidents kill approximately 100,000 people per year worldwide.
Wars kill between 100,000 and 250,000 people per year depending on current conflicts. So, some years as many die on construction sites as on battlefields.
The Under Construction Memorial
This is where architecture confronts the human cost of its own existence, mourning the loss of its makers.
A place of Creation and Destruction through the Alchemical transformation of Fuel, Fire, Water, Rock, and Blood. Architecture is ruthless. There is Blood in the mortar.
Construction workers are alert, circumspect, careful, attentive, thorough, and dedicated. They accept risks, proud to be involved, leaving concrete evidence of their participation. Cities literally stand upon their Work.
A void is carved into the earth. A negative architectural space created. A building inverted. A mass grave through which water flows. A glass floor symbolizes the veil separating life and death. The spire is a vertical axis connecting earth and sky, material and spiritual realms.
Overseen by Vulcan and Athena, whence treasure and intent are derived.
Vulcan: Divine Artisan. Hammer, anvil, forge, tongs, and the brutal physicality of making.
Athena: Patron of Art and Architecture. Helmet and armor, spear and shield. Owl nearby.
Resonant with acoustic memories of construction: dripping water, steel striking steel, distant voices transmitted by visitors through embedded sculptural voice tubes. These sounds evoke the ghostly remnants of those now absent, whose work remains embedded in the world around us.
The Memorial is not only about construction accidents. It is about the existential cost of civilization itself. A construction site is sacred ground
The Paranoid-Critical method has been explored by Salvidor Dahli and Rem Koolhaas. They describe a transcendence of logical thought, embracing unexpected irrational associations, images shifting form depending on one’s point of view. This method is a means of uncovering latent meaning within construction materials and processes. Objects associated with construction are symbolically charged. Construction sites are temporary worlds suspended between conception and completion, between danger and aspiration, between life and death.
Landslide, by Fleetwood Mac, final verse, etched in Stone:
So, take this love, take it down
Oh, if you climb a mountain and you turn around
If you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
Will the landslide bring you down, down
And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills
Well , maybe the landslide bring you down
Well, well, the landslide bring you down
Jacksonville Aids Memorial Project
Willow Branch Park was, and is, Ground Zero for Community Activism, evidenced by continual improvements of the park. These radical activists plant trees and plant Public Art. My one instruction from the Memorial Board was that Trees shall figure prominently in the Design.
Fallen Trees support a Glass Bridge which crosses the Stream at Willow Branch Park in Jacksonville, Florida.
Fallen Trees remind us of those who have crossed the Stream before us. Do you remember crossing a creek on a fallen tree with a friend? I do. Have you crossed it again without them?
A Glass Bridge reminds us that we cannot make that crossing just now. A thin and fragile veil twixt life and death with a view of the ever-flowing stream below.
The Path to the Bridge is paved of Red Bricks, which symbolize Blood, Vitality and Life.
The Path from the Bridge and beyond is paved of Yellow Bricks, which symbolize Gold, Purification and Value.
The Spire is a connection of Earth and Sky. The Stream a connection of Mountains and Sea.
Uganda Youth Asylum Competition
This is an entry for a design competition to create a safe place for homeless youths in Uganda. Being homeless and Gay in Uganda is dangerous. Behavior outside the limits of societal norms is not tolerated and is often dealt with violently. The Asylum is a communal living complex that includes dormitory style rooms, group dining and kitchen facilities, classrooms, outdoor gathering areas, and secure entrances.
This is an asylum for the oppressed and persecuted LGBT youth in Uganda. Design principles include authentic expression of structure and materials, balance of mass and void, harmony of light and dark, and the juxtaposition of both course and refined construction materials.
