Eduardo Villamor - SUBVERSIVE SHELTER

FALL 2019 - professor BRADLEY WALTERS
LONGLEAF FLATWOOD RESERVE

Subversive Shelter intends to analyze the human appraisal of light:

Travelers start the trail in shade, eventually coming to the clearing in the blazing sun. They seek cover, finding the two constructs. Now sheltered from heat, they appreciate the light of the sun. They explore the space as they do the preserve, descending to the dark. Now blinded, they yearn for light; the grass is always greener elsewhere as light is most valued when it is absent. They reach the light tunnels and pause as if they escaped the desert into an oasis, or the trees into a clearing. The sun now means different.

I dreamt I was on the moon and what I missed most was the rain.

spliced section onto model photo, indicating the relationship between the North intervention and the ground.

axonometric study of the meditation space and preceding descent.

above ground geometrical and tectonic analysis.

A study of Longleaf Flatbush Reserve’s spatial sequences and characteristics revealed a dichotomy of nature’s sanctity and malleability. Trail making and controlled burning demonstrate the human capacity to manipulate nature to create conditions for direct interaction and appreciation. The Subversive Shelter facilitates this contrast through threshold, expansion, transformation and discovery.

the relationship between the two interventions, simultaneously framing the path and inviting passersby from the clearing on the trail

conceptual representation of the gesture of the trail

Residing at the split of the trail, two passive education centers encourage visitors to understand their surrounding nature in framed and rationalized enclosures, including an underground meditative space. An unrealized relationship between the ground and below ground systems is amplified by spatial experiences occurring directly below the normally experienced. Light tunnels mediate between the sky and underground - an often overlooked relationship. The ritual of descending from a mostly flat landscape is distinct; it draws attention to itself.

The spatial sequence and tectonic logic of the interventions were largely reactionary in context of the reserve. A layering of vegetation and other ground level conditions architecturally represented by expanding spaces that build over the top of each other. The space dilates by progressively ascending ceilings and descending floor planes.

study into the language of layering on the trail

contrast of appraisal of light. This section examines the tectonic nature of the above-ground portion of the intervention and the stereotomy of its buried half.

The notion of Subversion is also indicated in the tectonic language of the heavy interventions shyly hovering over the ground. This detail indicates a degree of lightness to otherwise bulky constructs. It is symptomatic of the appropriately delicate approach when constructing on fragile and ecologically significant sites: an architectural tip-toe.

Light is a primary condition and tool in the Subversive tactics of these shelters. As travelers exit the natural canopy of the trail into a clearing, they are most immediately met by sunlight (or precipitation). The shelters provide a most basic human want: shade. As they enter into the underground spaces, surrounded by darkness except by sunlight from the light tunnels, their appraisal of radiant light is reversed.

the gestural relationship between the interventions, their “tip-toe” language, and a representation of coming into the clearing on the trail.

model ground excavated to show the meditation space is buried.

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