Aberrant Ground

Invited Distinguished Professor:

Barry Wark. Biophile.

 

Gabriel Esquivel,  Studio Professor

Texas A&M University

 

Team: Courtney Ward, Ryan Garza, Samantha Garza, Stephanie Shupak, Christian Vitullo.

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The project aims to dissolve the notion that humans and their artifacts are impervious and ontologically above all other objects. We are focusing on exploring the ground as a hyper object that fosters a coexistence of ecosystems containing both human and non-human entities. Following the Deleuzian criticism of the crystallization of time, the ground is a formal network of synthesized and natural processes occurring on various scales, which cannot be comprehended within the anthropocentric timeline. 

 

Within our buildings, various gaps establish an ambiguous transition from the ground to the building, thus eliminating the strict boundaries formerly separating humans and nonhumans. The fractured parts display a carved system differentiated by their contrasting surface conditions, insinuating a notion of impermanence through the introduction of weathering, erosion, and other natural forces acting upon each of these parts

Within the context of the city, the ground is constantly being altered to accommodate the Anthropocene through subways, electrical grids, water pipes and other forms of infrastructure, this projects challenge this notion by exposing the ground and how it is an ever-changing hyperobject. This aberrant movement is facilitated by an assembly of parts, forcing an interaction with the hyperobject, setting the foundation for the coexistence between non-human and human entities inhabiting the same spaces. 

 

Confronting the notion of the ephemerality of the ground, the formal network of synthesized and natural processes occurring provokes a shift from a preconceived, anthropocentric control of nature. The divisions of spaces into the ground can be read as both parts and as an archive of natural and cultural manipulations upon the world, shown as our building interacts with the city above and the ground below  

 

 Through the intervention of these natural forces, control over the artifact becomes relinquished, permitting nature to take over while also denying the modernist notion of separation between nature and architecture. These external forces act upon our object and create various articulations along the surface that promote nonhuman propagation. These natural articulations start to allude to the notion of the humble artifact and ancientness characterized by posture and territoriality.

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The exchange between the ground and the building becomes interchangeable through series of various scales of gaps creating multi-scale spatial conditions. These spatial voids reveal the underground and its entities along with the soil condition questioning the notion of whether the building may be sinking or rising, breaching the city context. The layers of the building, ground, and gaps highlight the levels of integration, which characterize our hyper object as a whole.

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Additionally, The interaction of the parts wrapping other parts highlights the multiple ecosystems nested within each other  that encourage coexistence, creating interaction and worlds within worlds.

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To summarize, we are primarily interested in the interaction with the ground in terms of exposure through the revelation of excavation, revealing that the experience of time is not linear. 

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