Half Dose #7: Bioscleave House

Since college I've been a fan of Arakawa + Madeline Gins. Their work appeals to the theoretical and artistic sides of me, though some of their writing can be dense and esoteric, a bit off-putting. Alongside their project images, their words start to resonate with the duo's far-reaching ideas: that we are inseparable from our surroundings and that communal, spatial experimentation could lead to humankind reversing its destiny and being able to live forever. Far-fetched might be more like it, but I'm never one to dissuade against something that's out of our current abilities or - more importantly - grasp of understanding. In many ways, their work tries to open people's minds to possibilities.

I've always wanted to feature one of their projects on my weekly page, but MoCo Loco has beaten me to the punch with a post on the artists and the Bioscleave House.



This house, like Yoro Park in Japan, is an attempt at finding a physical means of expressing their ideas. Where the novelty of their ideas and projects fits the playfulness of a public park, pulling off a residential commission must have been difficult, requiring a client with an open and understanding mind. Regardless, Yoro Park actually features a house, not an inhabited house but a potential house that people can experience, perhaps a blueprint for Bioscleave.


Click for larger, expanded image.

Where the Yoro's Destiny House features such oddities as walls bisecting rooms and its furniture, the Bioscleave House seems a bit more tame. The plan illustrates a living area in the center of the house that is like a landscape, open and full of contours. This landscape gives way to more traditional, flat-floored spaces (bedrooms, study, bathroom) that just from the main mass. Unlike a house on one level (ore even a two-story house linked by a stair), this house should make the occupants well aware of their paths through and across the spaces, perhaps training them for immortality...or at least a greater understanding of human/environment interaction.

The house on Long Island is currently under construction.

Links:

- Reversible Destiny, Arakawa + Gins' homepage.
- Site of Reversible Destiny, Yoro Park's official page.
- Architecture Against Death, Interface Journal's three-part issue on the duo. (Text available in PDF via Arakawa + Gins' page; Part I, Part II)
- The Slought Foundation's recent exhibition on the artists.