Tectonic Compositions
Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design
School project, Master’s program, 2017
The course Mirror, mirror introduced us students to a backwards design process where the starting point was with real architectural elements. Tectonic Compositions is the result of borrowing and reusing nineteen building elements from a donor structure, manipulating them into a taxonomy and then finally arranging them into principles using three different randomizing tasks. Each of the six principles has been given a name according to the feeling or action it evokes in me.
A grand entrance draws me in and invites me to play. The balancing act is two opposing elements joined creating uneasiness. Will they hold the weight of my body? A lookout wants me to climb, ascend, mount! The stack is a fairly neat heap strengthening verticality, drawing my gaze up. Walking past a twosome, showing off its repetition, pleases my eye. The inclination is a connection by leaning, one element relying on another wanting me to lean on it.
The original elements borrowed from the donor structure have been so far removed from its original context that they have lost a lot of their meaning. My Master’s thesis project, Sandhagen 2, further investigates reuse (spolia) using a similar method to the one described on this page, but with less manipulation of the original architectural elements.
