Found
in Translation: Magic Mountain Digital Landscapes Competition
Verona, Italy
As a component of the contemporary condition, we have more information
about the global landscape than ever before. Satellites record topographical
features and capture information on most of the world; nearly 100%
of the earth is under observation. Digital technologies break down
physical barriers and allow architects (and others) to work everywhere.
But can an an outsider really “know” a site, especially
one with such presence as the Prun Quarries, without occupying it?
With territorial dislocation as a given, is it possible to provide
insight and critical reflection using different strategies? New
techniques for mapping local knowledge and place without relying
on nostalgic, static imagery and materiality must be investigated.
This
project seeks to develop such techniques by exploiting the mutability
of digital information. The architecture for Verona’s Prun
Quarry site emerges out of a series of embodiments of digital data;
more specifically the disjunction between these embodiments. Using
provided CAD information of the site, one manifestation of data
produces an infinitely smooth NURBS surface; another manifestation
becomes instructions to a computer numerically controlled (CNC)
milling machine; another a series of reactive particles. The misalignments
produced when these manifestions are superimposed reveals and inscribes
the process's own architectural information. A local, industrial
archaeology is woven together with contemporary, digital globalization;
the new landscape becomes something “other” and its
form defies precedent.
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