Principal Investigator Brandon Clifford
Project Website http://architecture.mit.edu/architectural-design/project/la-vo%C3%BBte-de-lefev…
We are truly conflicted. We are preoccupied with computational design and digital fabrication commonly assumed to be rapid, fashionable, and surfacial, though simultaneously pre-occupied with volume–thick, heavy, ancient, and permanent. We also maintain an emphasis on speculation, and yet the dedication to reality resists this claim. We intend to innovate and transˇform the future of architecture, yet we look to history in order to do so. Someˇwhere in this milieu of conˇfusion and confliction is the kernel that defines us.
The purpose of this research is not to revert to this ‘antiquated’ architecture. It is intended to re-engage in a problem unfamiliar to our contemporary culture. This unfamiliar terrain produces a new monster. An architecture that is someˇhow ancient yet conˇtemporary, heavy yet light, familiar yet alien.