CHICAGO MODEL
Proposal for Collective Living II (Homage to Sir John Soane), Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago, Illinois, 2017
Team: Andrew Kovacs, Erin Wright, Summer Liu, Colette Aro, Phil Donohue
Project Description:
We propose to rethink the iconic section and the subsequent interior of Sir John Soane’s home, museum, and collection as a scale model that is conceived as a Proposal for Collective Living. As a house, museum, and collection we aim to view the material that produces Soane’s universe and assemblage as the impetus to Make Architecture from Architecture. If architecture organizes the world around us then, Making Architecture from Architecture is about reorganizing what exists in the world for new architectural purposes.
We propose a new contemporary collection of architectural matter to Make Architecture from Architecture - each meticulously documented, flattened and valued equally as parts. Our collection consists of wholes and parts, totalities and fragments, and unities and bits. This new collection of architectural matter conceptually turns Soane’s House inside out and fully covers and encases the provided plinth in the room of plinths. The new sum is the result of collection, contiguity and composition of pieces, parts, fragments forming a horizontal composite that speculates on a new possibility for human habitation.
In the cityscape of Proposal for Collective Living there is a single digital billboard broadcasting Life of a Model. This film documents the creation of the model, covering major developments in the production of the Proposal for Collective Living:
1) The Search
2) The Selection
3) The Scanner
4) The Assessment
5) The Demolition
6) Archive of Affinities
7) The Assembly
8) The Layering
9) The People
10) The Photographs
Proposal for Collective Living rethinks Soane’s interior as exterior. Proposal for Collective Living reconceptualizes Soane’s home as a city. Proposal for Collective Living repositions Soane’s museum as not strictly devoted to an individual but rather to a new collective. Proposal for Collective Living reimagines Soane’s collection of objects that are meant to be viewed as objects that are meant to be inhabited.
We propose a new contemporary collection of architectural matter to Make Architecture from Architecture - each meticulously documented, flattened and valued equally as parts. Our collection consists of wholes and parts, totalities and fragments, and unities and bits. This new collection of architectural matter conceptually turns Soane’s House inside out and fully covers and encases the provided plinth in the room of plinths. The new sum is the result of collection, contiguity and composition of pieces, parts, fragments forming a horizontal composite that speculates on a new possibility for human habitation.
In the cityscape of Proposal for Collective Living there is a single digital billboard broadcasting Life of a Model. This film documents the creation of the model, covering major developments in the production of the Proposal for Collective Living:
1) The Search
2) The Selection
3) The Scanner
4) The Assessment
5) The Demolition
6) Archive of Affinities
7) The Assembly
8) The Layering
9) The People
10) The Photographs
Proposal for Collective Living rethinks Soane’s interior as exterior. Proposal for Collective Living reconceptualizes Soane’s home as a city. Proposal for Collective Living repositions Soane’s museum as not strictly devoted to an individual but rather to a new collective. Proposal for Collective Living reimagines Soane’s collection of objects that are meant to be viewed as objects that are meant to be inhabited.
