30 WORKS of 12 GARDENS

3 0

W O R K S

1 2

G A R D E N S

A GERARD DAMIANI STUDIO K I T TA N G 2024 PITTSBURGH VEGAS FORTWORTH MARFA NEW YORK

We ventured into the Desser ts.

Cities.

Monuments.

Searching for Presence...

Although versions been lands,

most of

set and

in

earlier

pastoral

had

never-never although

The

Te m p e s t c o n t a i n s o n l y o n e allusion to the actual New World, its setting is never wholly fanciful.

The Machine in the Garden

Leo MARX

Forty Miles north of the Monument of Shiprock there is an unnamed desert

It is unlike the Great Deser t across the Atlantic Ocean where mists of sand flow off of great dunes under the Golden Rays

or the one miles to the South where traces of life litters the landscape with Sparks of Oases

This desert is pale

paved with a thin layer of rocky sand over an infinite bed of volcanic shards

silent among the howling of wind

Gardens, earliest forms of refuge.

Emerged five thousand miles and five

thousand

years

from

this

a n c i e n t ba s i n . C y r u s of t h e o l d Pe r s i a envisioned an artificial paradise for his newly established empire.

“A w a l l e d - i n c o m p o u n d ” , c o n c e i v e d and brought to existence for the yearning and hope of mankind – a realm of ideal dreams among terra firma;

Such

is

the

concept of Garden.

origin

of

the

As man made paradises in enclosed plots,

gardens

occupiers

from

sheltered the

their

remainder

of

the world, manifesting their beliefs into –

r e a l i t y.

Chahar

persians

The

Bagh created

–

f o u r- f o l d

layout

of

ancient

the

geometric

from the chaotic nature.

order

A mysterious fountain supplying greeneries and four rivers of water remains

the

sole

inescapable

feature of the early Islamic gardens as brave settlers challenged the drought

deserts

Mediterranean.

of

the

eastern

“out of the ground grows every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of k n o w l e d g e o f g o o d a n d e v i l .”

- Genesis 2:9 Eden – probably the most renowned garden of histor y – is conceived as a sacred place that beholds the source of life, together with the vir tue that s u s t a i n s h u m a n i t y.

An untouchable realm of an ideal world.

Roman

nobles

constructed

peace gardens decorated by fountains, status and vegetations – all laid out in compositional manner – provided tranquil refuge in the middle of the bustling urban lives.

Byzantines

treated

gardens

as

experimental grounds for emerging technologies. Most often populated with

libraries

and

scholars,

pioneering sciences such as grafting and planned watering systems are experimented and documented in these so-called paradise gardens.

N a t u r a l l y,

technology

has

always

held a firm presence in generating the ideal compound: The flourishing landscaping of the Hanging Garden for the Babylonians, the ever flowing water fountain of the Alhambra, the celebration of lost knowledge of the Palazzo di Villa for the Renaissance.

The

gardens

but

also

not

bring

only

to

symbolize

existence

the

future of mankind, the evolution of civilizations, and the beliefs of the generation. Linger in the midst of

the

imaginative

and

r e a l i t y,

technology – strangely – embodies the same hope that a garden carries.

Such remains ever so true today in the age of machines.

Carbon, footprints of human progress as

a

civilization.

Its

presence

marks

how far we, as a species, have come since the day we walk among animals.

Discover y of Fire, Conscious Explosion, Neolithic,

Bronze,

Revolution.

Every

of

ours

documents

Iron,

Industrial

progressive itself

stage

among

the

atmosphere and land with a unique mark of carbon trace. At this point, this ver y trace – the memor y of our evolutionar y path – has posed concern and threats to the continuation of the species.

And the DAC proposal, a technology w h i c h e r a s e s t h e r e m e m b r a n c e o f, i n a w a y, o u r d e e d s a n d p a s t , c a r r i e s t h e yearning hope of our species. As the first large-scale engineering applied on the atmosphere – an attempt to create paradise on a scorched earth, a last resort to refuge the future humanity – the DAC takes form as Gardens of the New Age.

The

DAC

units,

housing

fans

and

carbon

filters,

are

very

the

foundation of the plant. Rising 60 ft above sea level and spanning 1350 ft within each module, they become the

monolithic

walls

that

frame

the gardens. Carbon molecules are filtered directly through the open air and bound into a liquid solution.

The carbon rich fluid is piped into the processing tanks located on the nodes further

of

the

DAC

compressed

Corridors into

and

nominal

batches that are ready to be injected one

kilometer

deep

underground,

locked safely in between layers of porous rocks.

Each

capable

of

removing

close

to 200 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere;

all

864

fan

units

combine a total effor t of almost 173000

tonnes

of

annual

aerial

carbon capture. And such capacity brings the energy consumption of the whole plant up to 10368000000 kWh (one thousand and thirty seven million kWh, 1030 GWh).

Such energy can be sufficiently provided by this solar tower matrix. Eight thousand reflective mirrors calibrate their tilt and orientation constantly based on the positioning of the sun, redirecting the solar ray across 300 hectares (3 million square meters) of land surface to concentrate on the molten salt g e n e r a t o r h i g h u p o n t h e t i p o f t h e t o w e r.

Such installation provides up to 1500 GWh of

clean

electricity

per

y e a r,

sufficiently

covering the entire energy consumption of the DAC Plant while expor ting close to unlimited clean energy outwards into the surrounding towns and cities.

All

these

parts,

here

compared

of

College

the

drawn

in

scale

to

the

building

of

Fine

Arts,

are

the components that make up the Carbon Capturing plant.

This DAC complex – monumental in scale – lays out in a perfect grid of nine squares. Such is determined by the logic of the carbon capturing processes.

The voidal space left in the center among

those

monumental

DAC

Corridors becomes the gardens of this age.

Gu i d i n g

th e

visitin g

c irc ulatio n ,

th e

g ard en s n o t o n ly h o use th e dr illin g to we r th at seals th e c ar bo n deep in to t h e gro un d, th ey also eac h embo dies a re m embr an c e th at tells th e tale of m an kin d.

Fro m

th e

en tr an c e

th resh o ld

to

re s i d en tial quar ter s, to th e n in e-square g ri d in th e c en ter an d to th e matr ix of t h e so lar to wer, th e pro jec t is th e co m p o sitio n of 12 garden s.

Given identities – they each carry a n a m e ; e a c h b e a r a s t o r y.

These gardens – they are the shelters that sanctuarize refugees from the anarchy of enterprises; they are the plazas that drown pilgrims among the chanting of the DAC turbine blades; they are the cemeteries that is engraved with the journey of a species; they are the temple that ascend the hope of a civilization.

Akin to this ancient land, these gardens erase the physical traces left behind by their creators, and harbor only the presence of their spirits.

G A R D E N

G A T E W A Y

O F

O F

I N I T I AT I O N

G A R D E N

C O M P L E X

G A R D E N

DAC

COMPLEX

&

O F

CARBON

DEPOSIT

M A N

PL ATFORM

G A R D E N

DAC

COMPLEX

&

O F

CARBON

T R E E S

DEPOSIT

PL ATFORM

G A R D E N

DA C

CO M P L E X

O F

&

S A M P L E

S K Y

A R C H I V E

GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE

D A C

C O M P L E X

&

M E M O R I A L

GARDE N

O F

DA C

&

CO M P L E X

CO LU MN S

E X H I B I T I O N

H A L L

GARDE N

DAC

COMPLEX

O F

&

M O NUM E N TS

CARBON

DEPOSIT

PL ATFORM

G A R D E N

RESEARCH

O F

RESIDENTIAL

S H E L T E R

&

VISITOR

RETREAT

G A R D E N

E N E R G Y

O F

M A T R I X

S U N

... to overcome by finding a way out ... the Way Out ... Out of the desert and into the kingdom of the Radiant City.

M a r k TAY LO R

Standing eternal or dissipating among the sand, their presence announces -

36 WORKS of 12 GARDENS

Overview

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

03

18” * 18” * 24” 18” * 18” * 24” 18” * 18” * 24”

GARDEN of FOLIAGE

GARDEN of MAN

GARDEN of MAN

18” * 18” * 24”

02

PLAN

PLAN

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

03

18” * 18” * 24”

01

GARDEN of FOLIAGE

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

GARDEN of GUESTURE

GARDEN of GUESTURE

GARDEN of GUESTURE

18” * 18” * 24”

02

18” * 18” * 24”

GARDEN of MAN

AREAL VIEW

PLAN

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

03

18” * 18” * 24”

01

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

02

18” * 18” * 24”

GARDEN of FOLIAGE

01

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

18

18” * 18” * 24” 18” * 18” * 24” 18” * 18” * 24”

GARDEN of MONUMENTS

GARDEN of REMEMBRANCE

GARDEN of REMEMBRANCE

18” * 18” * 24”

17

PLAN

PLAN

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

15

18” * 18” * 24”

16

GARDEN of MONUMENTS

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

GARDEN of SKY

GARDEN of SKY

GARDEN of SKY

18” * 18” * 24”

14

18” * 18” * 24”

GARDEN of REMEMBRANCE

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

PLAN

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

12

18” * 18” * 24”

13

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

11

18” * 18” * 24”

GARDEN of MONUMENTS

10

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

27

18” * 18” * 24” 18” * 18” * 24” 18” * 18” * 24”

GARDEN of SUN

GARDEN of SHELTER

GARDEN of SHELTER

18” * 18” * 24”

26

PLAN

PLAN

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

24

18” * 18” * 24”

25

GARDEN of SUN

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

GARDEN of COLUMNS

GARDEN of COLUMNS

GARDEN of COLUMNS

18” * 18” * 24”

23

18” * 18” * 24”

GARDEN of SHELTER

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

PLAN

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

21

18” * 18” * 24”

22

EXPERIENCIAL VIEW

20

18” * 18” * 24”

GARDEN of SUN

19

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