“What started as three independent materially subversive studies in brick debris, dryer lint, and waste paper converged into a ¼”=1’ scale model of a New York brownstone. With each part an exploration in its own right, the synthetic model serves as a materially atypical means of architectural representation as well as a waste-informed, historic-preservation-critical reading of this classic New York type. Modeled as an exploded “diagram” of the brownstone, each element is subverted further: the load-bearing façade is rendered as a curtain wall (with brick-debris-in-bioplastic literally hung like a curtain); typically cementitious, rock steps are rendered in soft dryer lint; and floors of a historic brownstone are presented as if they belong to Le Corbusier’s Maison Dom-ino. Likewise, the materials themselves are questioned: brittle brick debris becomes rubbery; soft dryer lint becomes rigid; and recycled paper, with its printed word (semantic) cut and deconstructed into texture (syntactic), becomes structural.”
