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NONO : SOIL TEMPLE

 

Conceptual Framework = NONO: Soil Temple is conceived as a spiritual entity, a sacred space invoking the healing power of soil, and calls on its ability to transform, nurture and release life. Inspired by microscopic worlds, the agricultural and spiritual dimensions of soil, this altar invites us to energize the soil through our chanting, dancing, and praying but even more so to let ourselves be mothered by the womb of the earth. The installation is accompanied by Soil lungs in iron ash, a sonic work inspired by the multiple conversations between the botanical, geological, microbial and invisible entities that make up the soil. Commissioned by Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in collaboration with the Serpentine Galleries, London.

 

Design Components = Installation Materials : Soil, Metal, Stainless Steel ropes, Fabric: Cotton,

                                       Recycled Plastic Fiber, Seaweed Fiber

 

Architectural Function = Observation Space + Space of Emptiness + Soil Burial Temple

Architectural Scale = Seating 20 - 50 People

 

 

 

 

DETAILS

SACRED ARCHITECTURE - DUALITY-12i-Uoioi = MODULAR BONE APPARATUS

 

Conceptual Framework = Sacred architecture is an architectural design expression that functions to design, and construct places of observation, or meditation, or sacred, or intentional space. Many cultures devoted many ideas, styles, and large amounts of resources to create their sacred architecture, and places of observation. The diversity of materials, structural system, ornamentation, and form have created places of intense research, dedication, and imagination. These can range from the carving of stones, sticks, temples, rivers beds, geometric structures, animal foot prints, and many other forms of the solidification of matter from the fusion of movement, and intention. Within every form of there creation an array of ideas, and tensions had to be resolved with large communities. How do these structures help to bridge the gap between reality, and the evocative elements of the sublime? Can architecture even create this though those design parameters? These structures are iconographic symbols of the current state of societies values, and belief systems. The architectural structure demands presence. The power of belief they stimulate in subgroups,  are catalysed by each comment of the structure, as well as every molecule of emptiness in the vast spaces between walls. This design proposal aspired to design specifically for the sensation of the infinite though the exaggeration of organic emptiness while using the duality of the number two as a design foundation. Two identical structural systems represent the philosophy of duality, they ying, yang, or black, white, while making it clear that in their opposing directions they are the exact same, and complete the whole program, and structure of the architecture though a connecting corridor in the centre.

 

Design Components = Modular Structural  Organs + Grey SiO2  + UV[fi] Glass + Red Foundation

 

Architectural Function = Observation Space + Space of Emptiness + Community Gathering Space

 

Architectural Scale = Seating 10,000 - 20,000

 

 

DETAILS

FUTURE OF ORGANISMS = 2036

 

Conceptual Framework = Organisms have adapted to their environments over millions of years to create a vast range of subspecies, characteristics, and appearances that help them survive, and thrive in there natural habitats. The mission in this collection is to encourage awareness of the adaptive qualities, and responses organisms have adapted to in relation to the new environments created by environmental issues. The reality of climate change, air pollution, ecosystem degradation, and the melting of the ice caps has provided new adaptive parameters that organisms are forced to adapt to, evolve with, or suffer from. This research archives  these anatomic, epidermal, cardiovascular, and changes in their internal systems by creating a dialogue between, visual arts, and speculative biology. Many times  microscopic organisms are the first to evolve to environmental stresses, and their visibility plays a key role in trying to understand how larger organisms, and plants will change as well as  becoming a catalyst for the importance of living a more environmentally aware life. Beyond there scientific importance, they are beautiful as micro geometries, and forms. Many of them adapt to maintain an environments alkaline, or acidic chemistry though oxygen creation, decomposing toxins, and producing food for larger organisms. Artists an designers have always had a fascination with creating new relations between what we see, and don’t see using imagination to stimulate ideas that inform our perception of reality. What would these future organisms look like, and what new bones, systems, and skins would have to evolve for them to thrive in the future? Are there unseen species encapsulated in the ice caps that are melting in Antarctica, if so what do they look like, and what are their biological functions? Here we have designed a series of speculative organisms that have adapted to have functions that are essential to there survival in a changing climate as a design approach to raising awareness about the intricacies of the ecosystems we are connected to and live within.

 

Design Components = Micro-anatomy + Functional Biology + Frozen Skin + Speculative Biomimicry

 

Design Function = Environmental Awareness + Museum AR Installations + Pedagogical Design

 

 

 

DETAILS

LARSON’S WATER / COP15 PARIS AGREEMENT - UNITED NATIONS

 

Larsen’s Lost Water coincided with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, ArtCOP21. The exhibition focused on the ways that the relatively uncharted parts of the globe – the Polar Regions, and the seas – are (mis)represented, through exploring context, and how introducing an alien or unexpected object into a space affects both components readings. The exhibition plays with the dislocated object as cliché, and metaphor in relation to climate change. Ruth Little, from Cape Farewell states, ‘Metaphors allow us to think at different levels of scale simultaneously, linking the minute to the infinite’. However, isn’t there a danger that these metaphorical objects become clichés? These objects, and visualisations are important as agents for change because - quite literally –‘we’ve seen it all before’ through TV or internet footage.

 

The exhibition considers the proximity of objects, and how we engage with, and witness them. What might happen if the viewer shifts from being a spectator into a witness, because what is happening in front of their eyes is an actuality, not a media representation?

 

As critical writer, James Polchin states, ‘The word witness, as we have come to define it in the latter half of the twentieth century, is more readily equated with the experiences of surviving trauma, investing the act of witnessing with an ethical responsibility....to witness, especially in the context of historical visual documents, demands not only a speaking, but a speaking out’. So when you are witness to something, you become implicated in it.

 

 

DETAILS

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GSAPP  : THE ART OF POETIC ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHITECTURE

 

This studio is an experimental spatial course aimed to design poetic architectural public structures that stimulate environmental awareness through perceptual and environmental sensations. This course was designed to question what architecture is and how it can be considered through silence and decay. Silence meaning “to observe” and decay meaning “to transform”. Based on the current state of our climatic and geological weather conditions, this experimental course examined new ways of understanding the role of the architect, and spatial poetics that rethink our environmental relationships. The aim was to expand the mental ecology in relation to environmental poetics and conceptual or symbolic design, while questioning the importance of this as a collective. This was achieved by designing living ecosystems, and spaces of environmental contemplation in our public, and private spaces which act as architectural meeting places for human and non-human inhabitants.

 

[Studio Design Formula]

Environmental Art + The poetics of Experimental Space

Environmental Awareness + Architectural Perceptual Questions

Environmental Architectural + Symbolism

 

[Studio Elemental Components]

Environmental Poetics through Architectural Design

Colour and space perception in relation to sound, light and energy.

Mind and Body connections to architecture through Spatial Chemistry

 

[AAD-9] ADVANCED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

 

 

DETAILS

RAIN COLLECTION SCHOOL (44io) + THERMAL REACTIVE SKIN PAVILION

 

Conceptual Framework = Why is an architectural structure of importance as a catalyst? What does it mean to connect with a space, or to see it breathing? We spend eighty nine percent of our time indoors, or traveling within, or in between some form of architecture as protection form the outdoor environment. What would happen if walls could change based on the thermal heat energy of the heart? What if rain water could be collected for community use while also serving to activate the skin of an architectural facade? What would this look like, could it operate as a form of environmental learning? This visual affect would aim to show the movement of hydrological systems that provide water for all life on the planet. When each water drop touches the tensile skin there is a hydro-reaction that allows for the inner skin to environmentally change hue based on the water volume. How would this exchange of sensory exchanges become a catalysed for collective knowledge to the community at large about the world in which we inhabit while spreading ideas about an environment's fluctuating elements of a climate change on an atmospheric architectural level.

 

Environmental Issues = Food Deserts, Water Scarcity, Environmental Awareness

 

Adaptation = By developing a system that fosters the concept of modularity the components, and structural design can then function, and adapt to different locations. Water cities,  floating cities, and living on water in reaction to climate change will be of great importance in the future, and we have begun to design for this issues now that will address these concerns.

 

                      Adaptive Design =  Aquatic Floatation + Floating Hospitals for Water Cities + Scalability

                       Adaptive Energy = Solar Energy + Water Circulation + Solar Power + Wind + Thermal

                       Adaptive Materials = Local Material + Industrial Components + Woven Materials

                       Adaptive Functions = Water Collection 10,000 gallons +  Idea Apparatus

 

Architectural Scale = Environmental Pavilion + Urban Garden + Museum Outdoor Research Space

 

 

DETAILS

REBIRTH

 

This exhibition uses visual imagery to question the process of inner transformation though researching epistemological belief systems cross-culturally. The act of looking within ones own mental ecology, and connecting what is seen to the outward environment has been the inspiration for an array of methods that try to question the art of living. How does one transform reality through time without causing external tensions for others, and the environment? Is this possible through the creation of art, or artefacts of creative order? Many times the dogmatic routine of method, and ritual can either stimulate or negate this process of transformation by habitual dilution, or illusion. As an anthropological research design hypothesis we question whether dilution, illusion, transformation, and rebirth are all one in the same, which means one has no hierarchical value over the other, and are essential layers of action in the process of becoming. Each photograph is a representation of this process, and ask the viewer to reflect on their current state within the wider collective process of becoming by witnessing the posture, and looking though the eyes of others that are a reflection of ones owns journey.

 

 

 

Design Components = Palm Acid Film + Sri Lankan Textiles + Eye Anatomy  + Pupil Voice

 

 

DETAILS

TENSILE ARCHITECTURE SKIN AS MEDICINAL PLANT APPARATUS

 

Conceptual Framework = Biology + Architecture. When we look at the connecting filaments between the inner, and outer world that surrounds us, one has to question the networks in which form their origin. The collective network is complex yet the network is made of very simple components. Can the linking of an architectural species of components create the architectural structure of a living  micro-system that is able to function as an apparatus for new micro-climates and ecosystems to thrive on?

 

Biology = Researching  micro-biologic anatomy for architectural structural components.

 

 -Skin + Bone + Muscle + Vein = HUMAN Skin Functions  + ANIMAL Skin Functions

 -Marine Biology + Amphibian Poison Dots = CLIONA CELATA + DART FROG

 

When we look at the world around us, do we look at it on every scale? Things are made of things. Things connect to things. Each component playing its role in the overall structure of the whole. Each tensile architectural skin looks into different scales of this phenomena within design. The process starts with looking at  biology as inspiration of how the architectural system can aesthetically work, and structurally function. The aim of this series of tensile skins is to design based on the porous skin patterns of each species that was researched, and question how that structural bone system actually works, and is used by the organism, as the mechanics of what ever component is being designed. Once the pattern, and structural elements have been designed the next phase of botanical research assigns plant climbers, and other plants species to the tensile skin which allow for new micro climates to grown upon installation in the public realm.

 

Architectural Scale = Museum Installations, External Environments, Parasitic Design

 

 

DETAILS

LIVING BOOKS

 

Design Formula = Plant Skin + Dust + Saliva + H2O

 

Conceptual Framework = How can a book become alive, or an active nomadic agent that stores knowledge based on its reactions to environmental conditions, and time. Can reaction, or page transformation as a means of understanding the properties of change that are embedded in plant life though the visualisation of water production, or form mutation on each page as a skin speak about the health of an environment? This research consist of three living books that have been composed based on a collection of material science experiments with plant minerals. Each page embodies a different formula,  which has embedded properties from a range of site specific locations in London. The combining of these properties then affect the growth rate of the page in relation to how it moves, and forms based on its environmental conditions. Once composed in London in 2015 these books have travel to different locations around the world to react to the environmental conditions within a series of locations that have allowed them to respond, morph, expand, sweat, and breathe. As heat is applied to the books from a hotter climate they begin to produce water, or sweat, leaving vapour in the atmosphere from other locations. Each book, and page has its own memory, and acts as a storage mechanism for environmental conditions, and states of climate patterns.

 

 

"Knowledge as a living material for environmental fluctuations to teach. A book with no words, can still hold knowledge if one allows it to speak through the observation of its  morphology."  -Agbo-Ola

 

 

 

 

 

DETAILS

ARCHITECT AS SHAMAN

 

Where does the anthropological, and epistemological framework come into the conversation of environmental regeneration, or ecocide? The current framework, and conversation around environmentalism is structured in the form of rescuing nature from the results of industrialism, in the sense that we can aid, or restore what we have lost control of. One can look at this phenomenon as a pursuit of reclaiming a lost controllability of nature. This very perspective of rescue within climate change has to be questioned, as its foundation lies in a philosophical framework that still opposes a relevant relational connection to the threads of the environment itself, herself, him- self, their-selves, or ourselves. Before we migrate into what is now known as environmentalism, one can pose the question, what was the human perspective, and epistemological relations to the environment before the term was used as a description of actions that relate to caring for the environment? One not only should search for, and discover the layers of colonialism in the naming, classifying, and claiming land as a form of relation, science, and anthropological understanding to an ecological system, but one also should aim to explore the mental fibres which are evidence, or other ways of seeing these same classifications, and scientific analysis, i.e. What questions can one ask about the origins of environmentalism thinking, and how does it relate to cosmological, anthropological, and epistemological relationships of humanity cross culturally?

 

With the rise of cities, and urban agglomeration our aim is to document, and explore an array of research accounting for living, and extinct autochthonous cultures, and their anthropological view on human/nature connectivity though art, architectural creation, experimental discourse, and medicinal practices. The aim is to question the role of the architect, architecture, or experimental forms of medicinal architecture in a changing geo- sphere, in the light that humans can be animals, animals can be humans, and microbes can be humans.

 

 

 

 

DETAILS

ANTEPAVILION  - MEDICINAL APPARATUS  0.009.x1d

 

Conceptual Design Framework = To question medicine. What is architectural medicine, and how can it relate to both the sensory, and environmental apparatus of the mind?  How can architectural form work to question social tensions, and divisions though the collective eating, and drinking of plants embedded in its facade? What does it mean to design with an intention beyond the human perception of a program in which the human is at the centre of it functionality? What happens architecturally when the beauty of an architectural apparatus is not purely in its form or function, but rather the visually reactive conversations that it has with the wind, the rain, the temperature, the mist, the heat from your hands, decaying algal species, and the roots of the plants embedded in its multi-layered skin?

 

Function = Collective exchange of ideas/ issues/concerns around climate, social justice, and environmentalism though an experimental dinner program. This program will invite chefs, architects, scientist, musicians, and artist to exchange ideas about the ways in which design can have an affect on the way in which the environment is perceived, and valued.

 

Design Components = Modular Structural System, Knitted Interior, Relational Aesthetics

 

 

DETAILS

INTERIOR FUTURES DESIGN SERIES X4RiiU  + ARCHITECTURAL WALL SKINS

 

Design Question = What is the future of interior design, and how can this act as a tool to create imagined spaces of living walls, breathing windows, and decaying furniture? We live in a complex system of energy exchanges within our home, and public spaces that call to action new design problems, and experiences that can affect the way we see those exchanges, and the world. What does it mean to have dinner with a plant, when you eat, you also water the plant living in your table? What does it mean to have your house walls changing colours based on the microbiome  that has found a home in your living room? What if your guest could see the interior microbiota they were entering in when they pass the threshold of your home, and how would this change our relationships, and the way we do gatherings? The fact is that all scales of existence play a role in our daily lives, and microbial cohabitation is a necessary reality. The other fact is that the question of this invisibility  happens to be a design problem yet ambition that fuels our interior futures design research. We think that by designing for the unseen in a real, and metaphoric way can produce spaces that create  new programs of relations, and experiences beyond the realms of everyday living spaces. We have designed a serious of propositions through living wall skins, living furniture, and indoor landscape architecture that aim to bring these realities into shared public interior, and private spaces.

 

 

Interior  Function = Co2 Wall Absorption, Thermal Responsive Walls, Hydro Reaction Walls

 

Interior Scale = Museum Walls, Home Furniture, Gallery Interior Exhibitions, Living Facade Murals

 

DETAILS

TURTLE KERATIN + TITANIUM DUST GLASSES

 

Design Formula =  Calcium carbonate CaCO₃ + Titanium Dust Ti22 +  Crushed Keratin

Marine life anatomy works within the cycles of nature, and often times produces by-products of an organisms life that has flexible structural properties like calcium carbonate in oyster shells, and fibrous protein keratin in turtle shells. Both of these additives degrade when micro organisms decomposed their molecular structure for food overtime. Recycled keratin is a by product of turtle shell protein that has the strength to be modelled, and shaped into an array of degradable eye-wear in the future. The mixture of keratin, and calcium carbonate with a natural binder allows for the strength of the mixture to adapt to different uses. By adding this structural formula with recycled titanium dust, and salt forming bonds of carbide the colour of the mixture acts as a reflective substrate for design application. This design experiment formulates how organic, and inorganic waste can form new materials for design exploration while thinking of ways in which new materials can be formed using abandon crustaceans protective habitats as its elemental foundation.

 

 

Design Function = Eye Protection: UV light Reflection + Absorption + Water Resistant

 

 

 

DETAILS

BIOLOGICAL ENTROPIC SYSTEM PAINTINGS X29-i

 

Design Research  = Volcanic Metabolism as  Seed Lungs

This series of oil paintings aims to reinterpret of the chemical weathering process that happens as volcanic rocks decompose to create nutrients for plant life. Volcanic deposits can transform soil into some of the richest agricultural grounds on earth. Plant life on the surface of Earth primarily exist based on a collaborative effort from natural elements. The energy from the sun, rainwater, and nutrients from rocks that have been decomposed, and recombined into molecules that work together to enhance plant growth. The process of chemical weathering breaks down the bonds that hold rocks together. Chemical interactions from the atmosphere with rocks enable key elements from rock-forming minerals to be released. The released minerals are then accessible to growing plants. Volcanic rocks enhance some of the best soils on earth because they have a wide variety of mineral elements, and are easily chemically separated into elemental components.

 

 

 

Conceptual Framework = Entropy = Chaos to Order --> Life = Death

                                            Reverse Entropy = Chaos to Order ---> Death = Energy

 

                            (What completes the system?) Chaos to Order ---> Energy = Life

 

DETAILS

WEATHER THE WEATHER PAVILION

 

Project Bio: Weather the Weather is an artist project conceptualised by Inés Cámara Leret,  and  George Adamson. Olaniyi Studio as commissioned to design the a multi-sensory  apparatus that can contain different environmental weather conditions within the internal structure.

 

Conceptual Framework : Weather the Weather recreates weather conditions of the same day but of past and future years. The work highlights what today's weather was like back in the 1800's or what tomorrow's may feel like in 2080, when today's children are elderly. The weather conditions that are recreated are site specific to the work's location. They reference scientific data as well as cultural works that have influenced and been influenced by the act of  experiencing  weather. Weather the Weather was supported in 2019 through a King's Artist-In-Residence Scheme.  In 2022, Green Man Trust and Culture at King's, KCL further supported the development of the installation. Green Man Festival have commissioned a redevelopment of Weather the Weather to coincide with the Festival's 20th anniversary. From 18-21st August 2022 the work will be displayed at Einstein's Garden recreating the weather conditions for the Breacon Beacons of 1816, 1904, 1990 and 2080.

 

Fabrication : White Wall Company

 

Design Components = Modular Structural + Environmental Systems + Butterfly Skin  + UV[fi] +  Air Flow

 

Architectural Function = Environmental Observation Space + Space of Emptiness + Sensory Space

 

 

 

DETAILS

LITHIUM TRIANGLE RESEARCH  = AYNI : A METABOLISM OF RECIPROCITY

 

The last decade saw the growth of economic activity, and technological advancements towards sustainable development, and cleaner energy. This has accelerated the growing demand for raw materials. Resource extraction is becoming increasingly volatile in relation to the uncertainties that surround the geographical patterns of production. The Atacama Desert in Chile is a sand swept rock-scape spanning a 1,000 kilometre strip of land on the Pacific coast. It is one of the driest regions on Earth with almost no history of precipitation. It is located 2,400m above sea level, between the Andes, and the Chilean Coastal Range - the sacred mountains that have shielded this region from rain for centuries. From afar this remote desert has been described as ‘terra-nullius’ and depleted of any signs of life. However, on the contrary - The Atacama is scattered with mineral rich salt fats, oases, and lagoons, which encompass complex social, and natural ecologies, which are increasingly subject to large-scale mineral extraction activities, and rapid development of its associated infrastructures. The Atacama Desert makes one third of what is referred to as the ‘Lithium Triangle’ which encircles Chile,Bolivia, and Argentina.

 

Existing ecologies continue to reinvent, and adapt to the changing landscape of the Atacama Desert, but from our findings we can anticipate that growing pressure on the region for lithium extraction will have major implications on existing, and future systems of living.

 

Followed by nine months of extensive research, and three weeks of field work, where a series of projects have crystallised, the overarching theme of exploring alternative environmental futures in the Atacama region focuses on establishing an ecosystem of knowledge production and exchange, within and between local communities,visiting researchers, and the landscape itself.

 

 

DETAILS

IKUM : DRYING TEMPLE

 

Conceptual Framework =  IKUM takes its form and materiality directly from nature; the wooden frame of the temple, recycled from structures used in previous exhibitions at Serpentine, is inspired by the form of an ant - an insect that is crucial to the dispersal of seeds and the health of soil. The ‘tensiles’, knitted panels of dyed cotton threads, are stretched onto this frame, casting shadows that resemble swirling leaves. The plant cuttings that are connected to the tensiles have been selected according to the artists’ individual practices - for their medicinal importance in the care of the womb, or in aromatherapy. Over the duration of the exhibition, the plants will dry, releasing their scent and naturally readying themselves for use. A soundscape emanating from the centre of the structure has been composed as an expression of the interconnectivity between body, energy and earth. Commissioned by Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in collaboration with the Serpentine Galleries, London.

 

Design Components = Installation Materials :  Dyed cotton Tensiles, Reclaimed Pine Frame, Medicinal

:                                                                              Plants Recycled Plastic

 

Architectural Function = Observation Space + Space of Emptiness + Community Herbal Gathering Space

 

 

DETAILS

MICROSCOPIC LAW = MOLECULAR VIOLENCE

 

This collection of microbial reactive contamination looks into the affects of oil spill contamination on microbial life in the Niger River Delta of Nigeria. Over the last 20 years there has been constant oil spilling in the mangroves of the Delta Region, and this constant pollution has not only affected the Ogoniland People, but also the complex ecological systems that constantly have to adapt to the irresponsibility of the mega oil industry. This series of photos has been realised after three trips in the last two years to the region of Nigeria to document the local residents, and how they have reacted to the spills, but also to collect samples in relation to the polluted water. Instead of adding the images of people to this series the aim here was to show this scales of contamination that we don’t see with human eyes, and also to show that even on the molecular scale there is a molecular slow violence that is happening which is hidden behind beauty. This was achieved by photographing the polluted water under the microscope magnified by 30,000 times what the eye can see, in areas where dead micro-organisms had been mixed with the oil contamination. This series aims to show this hidden violence of the tensions on a molecular scale of environmental exploitation while drawing in the viewer with photographic technicality, and beauty. When viewers ask what is this beautiful photograph of, the exploitation story begins, provokes, and challenges perceptions about the systems that we are all connected to in a complex system of global energy relations. Photography as an element to question, and produce an new environmental aesthetic using beauty as a means to become a catalyst for environmental provocation.

 

Design Components =  Contaminated Water/Soil Samples

                                        Hitachi Electron Microscope SU7000 + Microbial Hibiscus Stain

 

 

DETAILS

BLUE BLOOD BASKETBALL GOAL + ECOLOGICAL AESTHETIC INTERIOR

 

Research Components =  Marine Biology + Environmental Perception + Sphyrnidae

Ecosystems work in a relational, and closed looped systematic way that allows for organisms to thrive, feed, and reproduce while creating a balance amongst diverse species. When this balance is affected by an extinction, or decline in the population of one organism the system has to rebalance itself, and all other organisms are affected as a result. Scalloped hammerhead sharks are one of the top predators, and organisms that served to keep the marine ecosystem in a state of equilibrium by maintaining the species under them in the food change. The state of oceanic health can be determined by the health, and population of these organisms because if there population declines a vast number of other organisms, and micro-botanics would overpopulate. This role of keeping the balance between competitors ensures an increase of diversity between species. Scalloped hammerheads are listed on the World Conservation Union's Red List as an endangered species, due to an increase demand for their fins, and underdeveloped regulations on industrial fishing. During the summer months large schools of sharks gather to mate in warmer waters, and because of their large populations, fishermen have also capitalised own this gathering to capture large quantities in a short time. This influx, and imbalance in relation to the quantity, and time in which they are captured causes detrimental effects to marine life. Often times only the fin is cut, and the shark is thrown back into the ocean. The anatomical structure of the hammerhead shark  only allows them to breathe when they are in a swimming motion. Unlike other shark species, if they stop swimming they risk the possibility of drowning, and without there fin this is the fate of their existence. This arena design, and interior aims to bring awareness about marine life, and how overfishing, and regulatory neglect has caused an imbalance, and population decreases in Scalloped Hammerheads.

 

Law = Scalloped Hammerhead Sharks are Protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act

 

Architectural Scale = Stadium Interior Design + Public Athletic Events + Olympics

 

 

DETAILS

ENVIRONMENTAL COSMOLOGY AS EXPERIMENTAL SEMIOTICS

 

Conceptual Framework = There is a long history of environmental elements playing key roles in the the over all belief systems, world views, and environmental values systems in many cultures around the world. Where have these beliefs, practices, and values come from, and more importantly how have they affected the way that the inhabitants relate, and connect to their surroundings. Each culture has there own value system which often times is made up of many systems of beliefs which make up the whole. These clarities, or abstractions then form norms in which play a huge role in the actions of the inhabitants, and justify the ways in which they relate to environmental elements in which affect their relationships with the environments that they live in. In one culture a river may be viewed as a economic resource, and in other a living entity. Is there a  beauty in this diversity of cultural perspectives, and does this beauty have to be actualised in a physical, or mental fibre in order to have an affect on they ways humans relate to their environments, and the organisms that inhabit them? What is at stake when an environmental element is only seen for its physical properties, and not for its interwoven unseen metabolic actions in relation to being an actor in larger systems such as a tree turning CO2 into oxygen for most species to breathe? Upon further research, and reflection this series of work aims to show the unseen relationships of environmental elements infused with cultural cosmologies that aim to unveil the multi-scalar relationships between environmental value, cultural perceptions, and attitudes towards the environment through experimental semiotics.

 

Semiotic Formula =  Architectural Archaeology

                                   Yoruba Poetic Symbolism

                                   Inuit Cosmology

 

 

DETAILS

PALEOMICROBIOLOGY FOSSILS + IRON[x] SKINS = OUARZAZATE, MOROCCO

 

Research Components = Micro Fossils + Material Science + Iron Mineral Reactions

Fossils act as the best evidence for early forms of life, and by looking deeply into the properties of  fossils we can learn about the evolutionary past of how organisms have changed as Earth’s environments transformed. Fossils not only tell us about how an organism adapts, but in addition  they tell us about the range of environmental conditions, minerals, and climatic zones in which they were found. These also range in environmental scale, micro fossils, and macro fossils. Microfossils consist of tiny structures such as bacteria, fungi, protists, plants, diatoms, pollen, and teeth. They  have been found on some of the most remote regions of the globe encapsulated in layers of sediment, which over time go though lithification and become rock. This research expedition questioned how the Sahara transformed from ocean to desert by collecting micro botanical and marine organism fossils as inspiration for a series of ephemeral plant fossils. Each fossil was analysed for its colour properties that indicate the environmental conditions in which the sediment solidified under to form rock. This was then used to create a new colour palette that has a five tone gradient as a metaphor of the physical, and biological weathering cycles throughout the fossils life time. This series of experiments has been archived, and acts as a catalyst for exploring past environments, and colour perception through material alchemy, but will be taken back to the Sahara in 2041, and allowed to go through the weathering process again for future design research.

 

 

Design Components = Boiled Soil + Fossil Dust + Pink Quartz + Root H2O + Lemon(Ac) Extract

 

DETAILS

ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVATION SPACES = ARCHITECTURE AS MEDICINE

 

Applying A Design Approach Application to Medicinal Architecture.

 

Conceptual Framework = To question medicine. What medicine can be. How is relates to the anthropological world-view of a given region environmentally, but also its extended world view? How can this biologically appear or become itself, as an idea, design system, projection, in both the seen, and unseen realms of environmental perception through architectural design?

 

Architectural Function = Designed to clean ideas, issues, or concerns within the hippocampus of the viewer,  while at the same time the space itself functions as a connecting element to the collectives within the microbial realm trough the managed or owned agreements with each entity such as the wind, sun, mist, sand, and the plants.

 

Human Scale Architectural Function = After a series of questioning, and asking each space has been design to stimulate the human perceptual sensory functions through haptic experience. Colour is used here as a healing mechanism or element in which allows the viewer to contemplate there internal cognitive environments. Each space also has internal tunnels as intestines which work to stimulate the excretory system starting with circulating the blood in the heart. Some spaces have private observation areas in which the relationship between human, and plant is placed act the forefront of each design decision, creating a one to one experience from the viewer and plant, through smell. The foundation of each apparatus will be designed for a bare foot experience specifically designed with a mixture of pressure responsive recycled textures for the plantar fascia.

 

 

Deign Formula = Asking + Colour Psychology + Architectural Bone + Algae systems

 

Architectural Scale = Museum Installations + Public Medicinal Space Art.

 

 

DETAILS

PLANT CELLULOSE SKINS + AROMATIC MEMORY = AMAZON JUNGLE

 

Design Question = What are new ways of experiencing, observing or remembering an environment post visual documentation, and photographic documentation. Often times the sense of smell is the most powerful sense when one is experiencing a new environment. The smells of an environment are deeply rooted in your mental archive, and when you smell something similar to that environment your glands are activated, and you visually picture your experience in a specific place. This network of atomic sensations sends electric messages down your spine, and into your blood streams, that triggers the movement of the nostrils, that breathes in, then exhales out while visually placing you back in that environment. With this is mind this research expedition’s core focus was to fuse experimental chemistry methodologies with local + natural materials from diverse environments across the globe. This edition of experimentation took place in the Amazon Jungle using local plants, water, cellulose, plant extracts, and medicinal dyes. These materials were locally sourced, and act as perceptual colour and smell specimens of the environment in which they were made. This living archive, and capsule of the natural elements, smells, and visual properties  of the Amazon Jungle will act as a catalyst for connecting cultures, and sensory exchanges through material alchemy.

 

 

Research Components = Material Science +  Natural Fibres as Aromatic Memory

 

Design Components = Plant Skin + Dye Aroma + Soil + River H2O

 

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[KAJOLA] OLANIYI ENTROPIC FOOTWEAR SERIES [FA11.9oi]

 

MATERIAL SCIENCE AS ENTROPIC DESIGN = Plant skin is an internal structural element which is essential for all plant life to thrive. It is through this element that plants have diversified their shape, form, structural and reactive properties that make them unique. Its an elemental botanical binder than supports plants internal functions, immune system, and protection from externalities. The chemical elements that are held within its internal molecular structure make it a perfect additive to the creation of plant based materials with skin like properties. When embed with material science field research additives, these materials react as if they were still plant skin in a living form, yet have new molecular properties of tension based on the natural additives that control their decay rate along with environmental fluctuations. With this in mind Olaniyi Studio has an ongoing design research project around how agricultural waste, natural fibres, and root extracts can create living footwear using plant skin. Agbo-Ola’s design aim was to create a multi-layered component based series of entropic shoes that will decay as they are worn, while providing medicinal properties to the foot of the wearer as well as have reactive exchanges with the environment. This process would happen when heat is accumulated in the shoe; the inner plant based skin would melt or react over time releasing the medicinal extracts from the sole’s skin into the foot of the wearer. The collection of footwear will evolve based on the properties of the roots  that are used in the future, and will act to establish multiple uses for plant skins and roots. “Our goal is to experiment and fabricate a higher trajectory of exposure for  applications of re-use, re-cycle, and re-connection with natural yet entropic systems of production.”

 

Design Components = External Plant Skin + Cassava Internal Skin + Soil

 

Design Formula = Aloe Skin Extract + H2O + Burdock Root Skin + Cyanobacteria Pigment

 

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ARCHITECTONIC ENVIRONMENTAL CERAMIC PANELS

 

Design Formula = Ceramics + Ornamentation + Speaking Facade + Linguistic Symbolism

In architecture, the ornament is a decoration used to highlight structural parts of a building, or object in which tells of the pass history, and in some cultures the future opinions, beliefs, status, and aesthetic sensibilities of the occupants. This element of visual linguistics on an architectural facade then has the ability to speak without words about the occupants, and their social status. The architecture, with the help of the inhabitants choice in ornamentation is then a voice within the threshold  of internal, and external epistemological relationships, and environments. This voice has a range of tones that are depicted through visual gradients such as geometrical patterns, plants bones, human, animal and anthropomorphic figures. For millennium these architectonic visualisations, and tools of communication have been ways of understanding past cultural influences, and their modes of existence. What are the ornaments of today, and how can they adopt some of the environmental philosophy’s, and relations of past cultures that have lived in a more connected way to their environments through the creation of poetic speaking environmental ceramics? This series of environmental ceramics uses poetic phonics through relief carving to enunciate symbolic images, and indirect suggestions that express attitudes, values, and states of mind in relation to environmental observation.

 

 

Design Components = Black Iron Clay + Basalt Silica +  Fermented Potassium Powder + Red Mica

 

Architectural Scale = Museum Interior + Exterior Facade Installations

                                     Building Facade Panels

                                     Public Art Panels

 

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MENTAL ECOLOGY EXPERIMENT - 12XiO-(La+Wa)

 

The textural environment,

as a space of understanding,

through the eyes,

into the psyche,

tessellated into action.

 

What is the architecture of thought, the thought of comprehension, of understanding the components in relation to how one understands an idea, or reads of such within the mental ecology? To question this, meaning that the mental ecology is one that often times is connected, or proscribed medicine when out of function, and or balance, i.e,  “What happens when ones understanding towards the internal, or external environment is seen as a pathological normality?

 

 

                             What  does this process  actually consist  of?

How can you map this journey,   or  the process of seeing yourself becoming it?

 

 

If we were to look at the process of writing  as a form of architecture in the sense of building from components,  how does one carry on?  What are the components? Where is the conceptual framework of creative expression find its origin? And how can this be questioned or observed?

 

Design Formula = Experimental Poetry + Lava Voice + Sounds of Silence + H2O

 

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SOIL + ACID[s7-Xio] + CELLULOSE ARCHIVE 4

 

Conceptual Framework = Soils are the foundations of organic life, and serve the purpose of Earth’s stomach. When you hold a hand full of soil the connections of its complex mineral content, and populations of life make up almost the same number as the human population on Earth. This fact shows the importance of soils micro ecological systems, and the role they play on keeping the balance of larger ecosystems. Essential minerals in organic matter rest in the soils architectural structure while over eight billion bacterial cells are found to make up a forest rhizosphere. This sphere acts as the micro framework for the network of electric signals that send between plant, and soil to insure healthy collective plant growth. How can the acidity, or toxicity of soil distort plant growth? When soils are acidic they produce acidic plants low in iron, and other minerals. Some plants thrive off soil acidity, but have adapted over millions of years to finding nutrients from other environmental elements. In this collection of material experiments we looked at creating an archive of soils that would highlight the diversity in there mineral properties, colour, and texture. Each artefact is made with soil containing different mineral content, and pigment from an array of habitats, and environments.

 

 

 

Design Formula = Soil Samples + Plant Skin + Acid Base + Blue Silica + Coconut Oil

 

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LEXUS SPINAL REPAIR OSTEOPATHIC CHAIR

 

Human posture is a one of most important aspects of stimulating creativity, and internal confront when working, and resting. There is a vast number of people that work every day in a sitting position that has detrimental affects on the sacrum, and lower spinal vertebrates. These bones keep the body in balance as they connect the lower half of the body to the upper organs. When these are damaged not only does this cause kyphosis, but it also weakens the internal nerve connections from the lower spine to the brain. When posture is correct the signals from these nerves have clear passage, and stimulate creatively, and better blood circulation. Often times dorsalgia is induced in the form of numbness, and sharp pains after long durations in poor spinal poster. The design formula here aims to use design as a tool of spinal restructuring, or repair based on the current state of the users spine. How can design be used as a medicinal device as well as a form of beauty? The process of form finding the correct shape of the chair was designed to provide support for the spinal cord, and supraspinous ligament by enhancing support for the (r/l) ilium bones, and (r/l) longissimus thoracis muscles so the spline can rest comfortably between them. The overall design formula, and prototype was short-listed for the Lexus Design Completion Tokyo, Japan.

 

 

Design Formula = Algorithmic Modelling + Spinal Anatomy + Supraspinous Ligaments

 

 

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OBA + OLORI CERAMIC SCULPTURES = IKORODU KINGDOM

 

This ceramic collection was formulated in honour of the King, and Queen of the Ikorodu Kingdom in Lagos, Nigeria. Each design element was used to celebrate, and symbolism the responsibilities of leadership, and the lineage of ceramic arts, and master artist in the local area. This appreciation for the history of anthropological research in the arts, and royal symbolism created the design components used to formulate contemporary relief carvings, and design motifs that act to encapsulate artistic traditions using the alchemical process of mineral solidification in fire.

 

 

 

 

Design Components = Bark Brown / Black Iron Silica Clay +  Red Alumina + ZrO2 + Fe2O3 + CuO

 

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ARTIST + ANTHROPOLOGIST = NIGERIA

 

Embarking upon the first art + anthropology experiment, Yussef Agbo-Ola travelled throughout Nigeria to study human ecology. This research investigated how humans connect with diverse natural environments. He aimed to visually depict how the value of trade + belief systems differ in the lives of urban city dwellers compared to those inhabiting communities, with a less developed natural landscape. Applying an experimental approach to photographic journalism this archive of his journey is a frozen capsule of Nigerian culture from an artistic + anthropological perspective. It shall serve as both a vista of cultural awareness, and a catalyst for discovery..

 

 

 

Core Research Components = Cultural Values + Architecture as Sacred Art

                                                     -Food Exchange + Indigenous Medicinal Beliefs

                                                     -Ritual Textiles + Egun Egun Dance

                                                     -Ecosystems + Cosmology

 

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OLANIYI EXPERIMENTAL SOUND ARCHIVE / ALBUMS

 

 

Sound Design Formula = This archive of acoustic architectural experiments reflect upon the role of ethnomusicology, biological sonic feedback, and conceptual poetry around themes of environmentalism. Agbo-Ola developed sound works that questions how different epistemologies from a range of diverse cultures relate, perceive, and become connected to or a part of their local ecological systems.

 

In addition, Agbo-Ola’s experimental composition of orchestral and spatial gradients aims to mimic the multi-layered atmospheric acoustic conversations between botanical, geological, and unseen environmental elements. Through the act of composing: each environmental sound equation speaks, as an exchange component within the wider context of sound observation, designed for stimulating the mental ecology through cognitive audio sensations

 

 

Design Components = Voice of Volcanoes + Cracks in Mango Seed Hairs  + Whale Lungs

 

Architectural Function = Meditation  Spatial  Artefacts

 

 

 

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ARCH[ [4450-0BI -XI99  = PUBLIC ART SCULPTURE

 

Research Components = Gruidae Caudal Aspect Anatomy + Homo Malleus Lateral Bone

 

Conceptual Framework = Community spaces, and works of art in them have the potential to act as bridges between public, and private space in urban, and rural environments that we all use away from home. They can act as connecting agents between species, and environmental systems that are constantly in flux. This series of public art works aims to look into the internal anatomy of both human, and non human  bone structures as a way of showing the poetic similarities that each species has. This idea of the internal environment connecting with the external public space fosters spaces of exchange, and meeting places for both species. The speculative bone design provides both hidden spaces for private one to one communication as well as more porous spaces from larger groups to gather, exchange ideas, rest, and contemplate their place within a wider environmental framework.

 

 

 

 

Architectural Function = Observation Space + Space of Emptiness + Community Gathering Space

 

Architectural Scale =  Community Pavilion + Public Living Sculpture + Tate Modern Atrium

 

 

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