ICONIC IRONIC
The intevention is a shelter in the desert. The project is a playful tribute to four architectural archetypes. It is a polemical - critical reflection around the difference between function and use.
ICONIC IRONIC is a model of temporary living in the Sonoran Desert of Taliesin. The shelter in the desert is an epiphany of the territory. In such a space any place that represents the human presence is seen as an interior. The project, therefore, consists of four elements, and none of them do what it is expected of them.
«WALL doesn’t enclose the space. It’ s the technological element. It is the DEVICE.
STAIRS do not go up. They are the inhabited element. They are the BED.
PODIUM doesn’t raise up, it doesn’t support anything. It is the comfortable element. It’s a COUCH.
CANOPY does not sacralize, it does not make space extraordinary. It connects the other objects. It’s a CORRIDOR.»
The black wall has a light metal frame structure with installations inside and photovoltaic tiles: it collects water, it has a shower, it is a source of energy to recharge the phone and laptop. The staircase is the only enclosed space, with a wooden structure in poles, cork, and coating in repainted wood panels. The podium is made of grey polyurethane, soft like a pillow. The canopy is a metal structure with rolled steel that collects rainwater and pours it inside the wall.
With Nicolò Signori
MA Design Studio at Politecnico di Milano
Taliesin West, Arizona (USA), 2021