QUASI THING 




The shelter for Winnipeg appears as a freestanding ice monolith in the landscape with an intriguing object inside. The project is drawn from the organically sculpted landscape field that produces a continuous interior, blurring boundaries between outside and inside. The outside of the shelter maintains its autonomy with an ice semi-hollow monolithic structure which contrasts the curvilinear landscape and interior.
It is our intention to engage the users through surprise and excitement; the project is a mute monolith on the outside, but as the user gets closer and moves around they start to see the intrinsic qualities of the object inside.

Through the outside and the inside the object—an ice poché that melts according to the natural weather conditions—is generated, achieving a mutual agreement between objects and the environment. When the ice rock starts to melt the soft interior object appears as a new thing coming to life, announcing the end of winter and beginning of spring.

The object maintains its autonomy but at the same time cannot exist without the landscape and the weather conditions, delivering a sublime event that depends on architecture, nature, and technology.
This subtle approach that speculates on the ambiguity of the Thing yields a novel understanding on the take of tectonics, matter and program: the Thing is too big to become a furniture piece, too clumsy to be seen as a sculpture, too small for a house, and too designed to become a standard space. Rather than us giving it a specific purpose or function, we like to leave this ambiguity open so that it can be all or none of the above, and allow for speculation on future uses.



















Location: Winnipeg, Canada
Structure: Fibreglass, aluminum, fabric
Type: Temporary Pavilion, Competition
Status: Concept
Year: 2014


Mark