NDM: There’s all the DeRoche examples, and the Brazilian modernism water themes… One of the things that architecture does, like in DeRoche’s own house… the water is really bloody heavy. And that’s the thing, water is one of the… what DeRoche did to support this thing (it’s like a nine inch pool of water over the whole roof): he’s got concrete beams which are about a meter deep, just to hold it up. And he uses them and articulates them beautifully. I think the physical properties of water and the way in which… would probably actually just deform the architecture you have here out of all recognition. I would encourage you either to really embrace the kind of entropic qualities of water... Projects have dealt with entropy in a variety of different ways. And water is this kind of destructive force that’s life giving at the same time. And I think that’s real interesting, that the notion of the house itself might be compressed over time into the soil. In parts of Australia, where people settled around gold mines, in the 19th century long before air conditioning, everything was just dug into the ground: whole towns and villages. Not in this kind of beautiful… it just seems very mater-of-fact: like, we are going to use the resource that’s here. The resource that’s here is the thermal mass that already exists in the ground. And so, the kind of resourceful… I don’t think you can talk about water without being resourceful. Especially in the way you have framed the project as water’s increasing urgency as a resource.
because you know I’ve said it before, that the moment there is a party and everyone is in the pool and the water rises and floods, there’s this whole dynamic condition about it that needs to be, not addressed, but accepted and then redesigned and reconfigured to accept the notion that water is a dynamic object. Unless then you move into vapors and ice; and you’re looking at it in its multiple states. And that is another way to explore the project as well. And I know you do explore it in terms if vapors by thinking about evaporative cooling. But I think on a much more… the phenomenon is not as pronounced I think as it should be. But I think what does work very well and is very exciting is that there is this notion of the interior, the domestic interior, that can be challenging and challenged by water spaces. And I do think that one goal that Joe had was to explore the realms of aesthetics, more than my own interest in water (and that is about dynamics and everything else). But I think the realm of aesthetics, and especially seeing Joe come along in the semester and knowing his past work, that he really wanted to push those on a number of levels… and also the realm of competence, I think. And he wanted to explore that. And it’s beautiful to see, I think, in the final result that he’s been able to layer in his interests. Because that’s what I think thesis should be about, in a very confident, beautiful, challenging way. And so, thank you very much Joe.
LC: I think also as you wrap this up, I would question your water cycle diagram where everything is linear over to the side. At what point does it come back at some point if it’s a resource? At some point it should come back.
Critics: Javier Arbona, Joseph Becker, Leigh Christy, David Fletcher, David Gissen, Melanie Kaba, Nicholas de Monchaux, Peter Testa
JTN: Ya, there is greywater. So, if it was organized differently, it could circle back. LC: Ya, so maybe it’s there. I’m questioning the organization. RR: I think the questions of the dynamic issues of water are really important and they have been brought up in ways that we haven’t discussed before and I think that’s been very fruitful. Especially this idea of displacement… and the displacement issue is only interesting, I think, when you accept something that I think is maybe the missed potential of the project: that I think David said this is like an apartment where there is water everywhere. The drawings in section could be done in a way where the figures never occupying the white, but they are always occupying the blue or the space that the blue needs to be. And I’ll say this again,
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