Domestic Ritualisation.

AA Visiting School Melbourne: New Paper

The Survey of "Domestic Animals"

The unit manifests the possibility to denaturalise the habitualised forms of life. Inspired by Andrea Branzi's "Domestic Animals", we made precise surveys of our own "home" as documentation of the process of permanent hybridization and nomadization, where we struggle to re-invent, retrofit, forget and live.

Timeline

Master year one, winter semester

2020

Tutor

James Kwang Ho Chung

Suh-In Park

David Koo

Brief 1 - Everyday Life Surveyed

We analysed our daily lives and documented significant moments in a form of a forensic video.

I heavily associate my daily rituals with the spatial conditions. From sounds to objects around, I create zones with fixed conditions in accordance to my daily routines.

House Plan Drawing

Forensic Video

Brief 2 - Anatomy of Everyday Life

We created anatomical drawings of our houses to identify the status quo which comprises our living.

"Architecture is a thermodynamic mediation between the macroscopic and the microscopic, between the body and space, between the visible and the invisible, between meteorological and physiological functions"

- Philippe Rahm

Brief 3 Pt. 1 - Free, Rational & Axial

We treated it as an architectural exercise whereby we defined the “Free, Rational and Axial”.

The reasoning behind this is that the free could relate to having fluidity of moments, whereas the rational comes in play with the habitual aspect in a domestic space.

The strict rigid rational grid indicates the placement of domestic fixtures, combining with the free form of the quality map in the background, showing the spatial quality that could be achieved.

This formation also results in the varying scales of enclosure, which can host varying scales of occupation.

Seeking the potential of using the rational to create free moments in our living.

Drawing One

Certain performed habits like controlling the sound and smell in a certain occupied space illustrate the significance of spatial sensitivity to me when I am home, noticeably during the mornings in the living area.

Drawing Two

In the bedroom, I construct several momentary zones, associating them with certain ground planes or items, as it can be seen that these conditions are moulded mainly for concentration, relaxation and well-being which also often cross-over between each other as well.

Brief 3 Pt. 2 - A Giant Borderless House

"The human is an animal that unlike other species is devoid of specialized instincts and thus affected by a persistent feeling of never being “at home”, it is within language and ritual that this feature of human nature comes to be tamed."

- Pier Vittorio Aureli

The simplicity of the forms challenges the conventional forms of domestication. The furniture congregates radically following the rational placement of the inhabitable wall on the grid.

The project focuses on the negative spaces and voids beyond the rigid grid where one's temporal rituals could take place, at the same time forcing on to confront rituals of others. The inhabitable wall offers the ability for the temporal zones of ritual setups for both individual and collective.

Thus, interesting questions and discussions could arise during the encounters between both.

Extracting the Rational from Part 1, it resulted in different proportions and scales of enclosures for in-habitation.

Placements of permanent fixtures like toilets and kitchen.

Quality map overlay.

Extracting the Rational from Part 1, it resulted in different proportions and scales of enclosures for in-habitation.

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In conclusion, the spatial ritualization of daily routines becomes the basis of this project that challenges the typical domestic conventions of the house. Taking inspiration from scheduling of the inhabitant’s life, an architect should look closer to one’s ritual in a form of choreographing the spatial conditions, in opposition to following a typical industrialized model.