Something – Nothing – Object – Architecture
Project Text
Gallery / Index
[drawings]
[of nothing photographs]
[of something photographs]
[6th Ave Market + Deli]
[fridges]
Project Text
Gallery / Index
[drawings]
[of nothing photographs]
[of something photographs]
[6th Ave Market + Deli]
[fridges]
Studio Advisor: Mark Stanley
Term: Self Directed Project, Fall + Spring 2022–23
Honors: Distinguished Design Award for Architectural Research, Distinguished Design Review Presenter
This journey begins out of the curiosities of the everyday. The work is a window into the endlessness of applied meaning, and how meaning is associated or not associated with objects and architectures in human culture.
It investigates material culture as a way to understand the dynamics of attachment and possession, which act as twin vectors of meaning associated with objects and architecture, especially within the abundant washes of “meaningless” consumer goods, replicated by the millions, yet onto which get impressed personal narratives and layers of meaning.
As a form of self-identity, human’s spaces, places, and their things tell a lot about them in a very personal way. Throughout a person’s life, an accumulation of objects exists along a timeline of episodes and happenings consequently meaningful to one’s life. These are the things that make people, people. There is identity sowed into this timeline. The project transacts in the realm of the marginal object, the objects and tactile spaces that speak to intrinsic social and human characteristics of everydayness. Emerging from that discussion there are two things I hope come out of this: 1 is to bring within the territory of architectural attention things normally considered to lie beyond, below, or above its main concerns; and to analysis architectural and personal constructs that are frequented, thought of and forgotten in the everyday.
I set out into the world to unearth deep and interconnected relationships that people have to tangible spirits and the material world around them.
This pursuit is organized through the ‘something’ or the ‘nothing’ as it relates on the object-architecture spectrum.The work stems off a small convenience store (The 6th Avenue Market and Deli) in North Knoxville and its proprietor, PJ. This ‘nothing architecture’ is a common one, on almost every street corner, and one that we interact with everyday either visually or tangibly. The market has morphed within this setting to serve as a microcosm of the broader cultural landscape, providing a close examination of the interplay between meaning, architecture, and objects, all within the social context. PJ acts as a kind of proto-subject, the patron saint of the something within the nothing. PJ’s willingness to open the doors to the “something” - the personal associations to space and things – qualifies architecture to facilitate and contain these relationships. As a physical and visual representation of our values and identity, the spaces we frequent are crucial to influencing our personal narratives and experiences.
Along the way I had no conception what I was looking for. I had ideas for what I hoped to find. What I did find was the richness of people contained within the bounds of their individual life and stories. Architecture is merely a border for life to occur within. Ordinary on the outside but complex within, in every instance.
To sit and hear somebody speak about their experiences is so rewarding. I think of the endless stories and possibilities. An impossible task to try to hear them all. Cherish what you know and what you might not expect.
This project became a testament to the cyclical nature of life’s narratives, a full circle from a state of uncertainty and the search for meaning (“nothing”) to the discovery of profound connections and stories (“something”) and, ultimately, a return to the unknown (“nothing” again).
Term: Self Directed Project, Fall + Spring 2022–23
Honors: Distinguished Design Award for Architectural Research, Distinguished Design Review Presenter
This journey begins out of the curiosities of the everyday. The work is a window into the endlessness of applied meaning, and how meaning is associated or not associated with objects and architectures in human culture.
It investigates material culture as a way to understand the dynamics of attachment and possession, which act as twin vectors of meaning associated with objects and architecture, especially within the abundant washes of “meaningless” consumer goods, replicated by the millions, yet onto which get impressed personal narratives and layers of meaning.
As a form of self-identity, human’s spaces, places, and their things tell a lot about them in a very personal way. Throughout a person’s life, an accumulation of objects exists along a timeline of episodes and happenings consequently meaningful to one’s life. These are the things that make people, people. There is identity sowed into this timeline. The project transacts in the realm of the marginal object, the objects and tactile spaces that speak to intrinsic social and human characteristics of everydayness. Emerging from that discussion there are two things I hope come out of this: 1 is to bring within the territory of architectural attention things normally considered to lie beyond, below, or above its main concerns; and to analysis architectural and personal constructs that are frequented, thought of and forgotten in the everyday.
I set out into the world to unearth deep and interconnected relationships that people have to tangible spirits and the material world around them.
This pursuit is organized through the ‘something’ or the ‘nothing’ as it relates on the object-architecture spectrum.The work stems off a small convenience store (The 6th Avenue Market and Deli) in North Knoxville and its proprietor, PJ. This ‘nothing architecture’ is a common one, on almost every street corner, and one that we interact with everyday either visually or tangibly. The market has morphed within this setting to serve as a microcosm of the broader cultural landscape, providing a close examination of the interplay between meaning, architecture, and objects, all within the social context. PJ acts as a kind of proto-subject, the patron saint of the something within the nothing. PJ’s willingness to open the doors to the “something” - the personal associations to space and things – qualifies architecture to facilitate and contain these relationships. As a physical and visual representation of our values and identity, the spaces we frequent are crucial to influencing our personal narratives and experiences.
Along the way I had no conception what I was looking for. I had ideas for what I hoped to find. What I did find was the richness of people contained within the bounds of their individual life and stories. Architecture is merely a border for life to occur within. Ordinary on the outside but complex within, in every instance.
To sit and hear somebody speak about their experiences is so rewarding. I think of the endless stories and possibilities. An impossible task to try to hear them all. Cherish what you know and what you might not expect.
This project became a testament to the cyclical nature of life’s narratives, a full circle from a state of uncertainty and the search for meaning (“nothing”) to the discovery of profound connections and stories (“something”) and, ultimately, a return to the unknown (“nothing” again).