Scared
Landscapes | 2023
Graduate
Thesis: University of Toronto.
Supervisor:
John Shnier
The idea of Scared Landscapes started during overnight stays at an inactive quarry in western Sicily, surrounded by limestones marked with traces of blades from over half a century ago. These cathedral-like spaces are the remnants of an older extraction method that employed subterranean tunnels, known as galleries, rather than the open-pit technique. Initially, these spaces were not intended for human inhabitation but stood as a testament to the absence of matter.
Much like the Earth retains the blade marks, the extracted material bears eternal scars from the tools that facilitated its departure. This work reflects upon these occurrences and pays homage to the rich history of stone before it becomes architecture and seeks to establish a connection between the processes of extraction and design. It is inspired by the work of Ensamble Studio in the Music Studies Centre and Groupwork’s 15 Clerkenwell building, both projects viewed tool marks as design opportunities.
The project incorporates iterative drawings in various techniques. The collage of photographs, captured during field trips, envisions an imaginative interior space repurposed without erasing the traces of its past. Additionally, the drawings of façade-like walls use lines to represent tooling—some imagined, others researched. The goal is to suggest a level of intimacy with material narratives and to bring some of that intimacy into design practices.
This work is part of a year-long graduate research, title Stone Portraits, that uses drawings as a method to investigate and iterate architectural ideas using allegorical narratives that are rooted in material research.
Speculative
Landscape/Façade
Representation Experiments
Tooling
Marks Study Models
