As practitioners of architecture, we must be willing to prescribe solutions for a sick society rather than continuing to enable a self-destructive path for civilization and our collective consciousness. The project is a prototype for an ideology of architecture that seeks a framework for establishing the goals and values of a community to determine a program and spatial strategy. These are generated by integrating three components: a belief system, a mission (or purpose), and a way of Life.
On the planetary scale, a belief system is one that frames our (human) relationship with technology and resources. On a universal scale, it frames our relationship to interstellar consciousness; with our way of life bridging our beliefs and purpose. Researching and synthesizing the contextual, typological, and financial narratives of the site translates to a self-sufficient community with the primary user as the artist-resident-monk dedicated to transcending consciousness through the creation of art. The program includes residences & art studios, community & congregation, school & education, and farming & feeding. The tower, or “The Solar Palace”, is a large-scale hydroponic farm capable of feeding up to 1000 people a day. Below that is “The Lunar Palace”, a sacred space where the artist-resident-monks live and get down to the serious work of creating their art. At the ground level is “The Gate” a community space that provide congregation, education, and service (including the preparation of meals for the community).
The future of personal freedom is hygiene of the mind, body, and spirit. Combined, this would constitute a reconfiguration of conditional, relational, aesthetic, and conceptual principles not yet explored within integrative design.
