Readymade Goods Joel Lok Supervisor: Dr. Peter Brew
“What I propose, therefore, is very simple: it is nothing more than to think about what we are doing.” Hannah Arendt’s proposition from The Human Condition is the pretext for this project. There are four parts: the swimming pool - an “architecture”, the Work and Development Permit - an apparatus analysed, the master plan - a schema for thought & the objects - the model applied. The swimming pool is the project we would come to expect an architect to be involved with, the architecture of architects. An analysis of the Work and Development Permit (WDP) provides us with the means to recognise two models, Marx’s theory of commensurability & Aristotle’s three goods. The Masterplan is a diagram for thought, how we think a thing in terms of the three goods. This is represented through three zones intrinsic, extrinsic; and the consideration of a final good. The objects exist as a grid, which is a comparative exercise in classification. We are prompted to perform the task of determining their status as a good. In doing so we are prompted to confront the status of architecture, and our engagements to and through the profession. Are our actions a means to an end or an end in itself?