SEP-APR 2015-16
Things Shaped In Passing
Kangerdlugssuaq Artist Residency & Research Station
The right diagram expresses the notion of a single concept reflected across a mirror, an idea born of the relationship between man in civilization and man in the frontier. Both the original form and its refelction are identical yet different due to their perspectives on the world. The physical zone of transition is left as a void between the two reflections, a third form. The left diagram further interprets this idea as the fields of art and science and the intersections between them. The central zone of transition manifests in this diagram as the collection of interactions between each side in a singular place.
The Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier in west Greenland is a component of the Greenland Ice Sheet, one of the quickest shrinking of its kind. It is a massive block of ice, thousands of meters thick and hundreds of kilometers across. Traditionally, humans would never set foot such an inhospitable place due to its deadly crevasses, frigid waters, and biting winds.
Utilizing a dichotomous relationship in the programming of a building reflects the dichotomous relationships between man in civlization and man in the frontier as well as the fields of art and science. The building is organized with arts functions mirroring science functions across a central series of spaces that provide mobility not only across the arts and science portions of the building but vertically as well. This series of spaces culminates in an upper observatory to view the heavens and a lower observatory to view the ice and obtain core samples.
