ACADEMIC DESICCANT SALT-GUST CANYON

Using Mies’ Federal Center as a system, stripped down to the fundamentals of form, affect, and utility. It is reconsituted by saline-rich minerals which fill the carcass. The “I” beam mullions are bent and warped into a series of screens that alter the tracery of wind on the site, and the ground is hewn to provide access to a new pavillion that juxtaposes the material presence of the banal Miesian context.

The minerals are stacked within the skeletal structure echoing the form and orientation of the screens that surround them, deviating only to allow access and contemplative occupation. Like the fissures within the very fabric of Miesian order, winding paths curl and climb throughout, in, and around order and disorder keeping each at arm’s length.

We imagine the citizens of a sun-bleached and parched future Chicago congregating, en masse, to tear into the very foundations of the Federal Center to quench their thirst and cool their bodies. They begin their pilgrimage underground by cleansing themselves of the heat and grime of the city climate. Journeying beneath the plaza, re-emerging among the remains; revealing the foundation of a new public forum. Moving upward on hastily constructed pathways hung between spaces of rest. They sojourn among the stacks of minerals with wind whipping. Rising through the labyrinth they gain a new perspective on the city before finally reaching the apex of their journey. As they emerge above the twisted form the wind dies leaving only quiet observation and reconciliation with the City.