The Collector’s House




The exploration began by making a 7' by 8' plaster field. Without the use of adhesives, the field grew only from pouring puddles of plaster abutting one-another. The sinuous seam between the panels is the result of different forces registering and interlocking with each other, These forces and thresholds are abstracted to a thumbnail model and further developed into the plan of the final design.


  


The narrative of a "collector of broken vessels" emerged whilst my imagination was entanged in the web of seams. I was interested in this reciprocal relationship between artifacts and the psyche, and what it means to  inhabit a space for amassing  artifacts of obsession. 

A collector of broken vessels.
is fascinated with the seam that can never be fully bridged,
Bringing artifacts from disparate sources,
he searches for meaning through the ritual of amassing.
He cherishes the seams,
the mysterious outcome of countless forces.
The vessel liberates itself through the seam,
And the collector frees himself by dwelling
mentally and physically in the seam.
The house emerges from the threshold between
the staggered tectonic plates.
The tectonic forces push forth the wall,
leaving cracks that open inward.
Through the cracks,
programs reveal themselves as a collection of volumetric spaces
floating between the seams.
As the collector descends,
he transitions from open platforms for outward exhibition to
chthonic (underground) volumes of archive and contemplation.
Between the cracks,
he displays his treasured artifacts.
The threshold between the collector and the world
is mediated through the arrangements of his collection.

Drivin by the narrative, the sectional experience was developed through further abstraction of the crack and materials' reaction to exterior forces.