Ghost House Installation

Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz

GHOST HOUSE INSTALLATION

I/thee

ARCHITECTS
i/thee

LOCATION
Morongo Valley, United States

AREA
100 ft²

CATEGORY
Installations & Structures

MANUFACTURERS
Elmer's, Tarps Now

STUDENTS TEAM MEMBERS
Thatsama Leeumnadwong, Thanjira Vimonanupong, Ranchana Rungwatanawong, Tanaboon Kittisrikangwan, Chutimon Suetragulwong

PHOTOGRAPHS
Daniel Schwartz

YEAR
2018

DESIGN LEADERS
Neal Lucas Hitch, Martin Hitch, Kristina Fisher

Text description provided by architect.

Ghost House was conceived as an experiment in material manipulation, the form of which is directly dependent on the weather, environment, and time itself.

Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz
Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz

The process of construction started with the erection of light wooden frames to create the formal outlines of two houses.

Then, custom-cut canvas sheets were soaked in non-toxic adhesive and draped over the frames. Over the course of a few hours, the sheets froze into solid objects while blowing in the strong mountain winds.

Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz
Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz

Next, cubic apertures were cut from the canvases, further referencing the formal memory of a house. The final result is a three-dimensional snapshot of a specific moment in time.

It is an improbable structure: a representation of the past existing in the present, neither here nor there; the ghost of a house.

Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz
Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz

The project was executed as part of Space Saloon's 2018 mobile education camp that asked participating architects and artists to design/build installations investigating notions of context as they relate to environmental factors.

Our installation specifically studied architecture's relationship to the wind—a historically and mythologically mysterious force that is only now beginning to be fully understood.

Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz
Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz

Using specialized equipment, we identified and recorded wind patterns at various hyper-specific locations throughout California's high desert. The site of the structure was then selected based on the precise microclimate of the designated area.

The resulting structure is a poetic expression that questions outstanding notions of authorship in design, inviting weather, and the environment as an active participant in the process.

Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz
Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz

Whereas bio-design typically posits to create architecture resembling nature or natural processes, we take the challenge literally—Ghost House doesn't just look like a curtain blowing in the wind; it is a curtain blowing in the wind.

Here, architecture transcends traditional values of composition and function and instead exalts in the primal beauty of nature through the embodiment of the exact climatic conditions of one instant in time solidified in a billowing canvas sheet.

Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz


Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz
Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz
Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz
Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz
Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz
Ghost House Installation
© Daniel Schwartz


Ghost House Installation
Elevation
Ghost House Installation
Section


Ghost House Installation
Site plan
Ghost House Installation
Axonometric


Ghost House Installation
Concept model
Ghost House Installation
Concept model


Ghost House Installation
Concept diagram