The name wonderland comes from Alice in Wonderland, a world that is constantly changing based on her imagination and her perspective of a journey through time and space. The proposed scenario speculates on conditions when even basic material resources are in scarce supply, which causes a spike in domestic construction materials. This results in the site and architecture being pushed into a state of constant transformations which is directly influenced by the social, political and economic forces that drive material value. The fluctuations in the material value informs how the city would be mined, and subsequently how the architecture might transform itself. A methodology of scanning is employed to observe these changes that not only becomes a tool for identification but also an interface for ‘design through deformation’ of the architecture. The architect observes and utilizes the extensive transfer of materials going into the construction of cities today, but in the new nature he takes on the role of the miner to view a city as a source of materials for the city of tomorrow.
Prospecting
The rigorous pursuit for mineable materials in a domestic context. The transfer of material data (volume and type) onto point clouds allows for a house to be reduced to its material information, that can be mined from in order to derive a profit
Deconstruction
The information stored in the points allows the architect to act as the miner to extract objects from the house when the value rises high enough as compared to the cost of extraction
Wonderland
The proposed scenario speculates on conditions when even basic material resources are in scarce supply, which causes a spike in domestic construction materials. This results in the site and architecture being pushed into a state of constant transformations which is directly influenced by the social, political and economic forces that drive material value. The fluctuations in the material value informs how the city would be mined, and subsequently how the architecture might transform itself.
Scanning
Periodic scanning of the house displays the deformations caused in the house due to the mining process. Physical Model 1:50
Cryogenic Preservation
Artefacts produced from materials obtained through mining. They represent the spatial deformation caused to the architecture, that highlight the relationship between material value and architecture.
A constructed perception of urban mining
A constructed perception of urban mining
