POST OFFICE
Nature is the other. It always has been. Whether we hide it, display it, dream it, destroy it, use it, or try not to think about it, we seperate nature from the realm of the human. Cavemen used caves. Impressionists used paintings. Mies used glass. Culture is. Architecture is. Human is. Nature is not. Maybe now is a good time to reconsider our as-is—the is and the not.
As the notion of human versus nature has evolved from a religious stewardship to an existential claim over the environment, Post Office challenges entrenched binary oppositions by making a big mess of nature and culture. An underutilized parking garage in Basel becomes a place for human and non-human elements to collaboratively reimagine space. The structure becomes a living classroom, where the architectural process is an ongoing act of creative reassembly. Rejecting the glorification of architectural form, it promotes a raw exploration of environmental effects on our bodies and surroundings, advocating for a collapse of the nature-culture divide as a foundational educational step.
Less architecture project and more narrative device used to invigorate teaching architects. A short stop motion film tells the story of a factory fire that led a toxic river. A car park goes from useful for cars to useful for toxic waste and drags along today as a relic from past use. That car park
Type: Studio Project
Instructor: Anya Sirota
Year: 2024
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Team: Emmalyn Kukura
First Prize Raoul Wallenberg Studio Award [$14,000]