MICHAEL THUT
This structure is a one-story Co-op grocery store in
Petoskey, Michigan. The building is a long, skinny space constructed out of
brick, cement, and metal with window openings along the front of the building
and one elevation (the other side of the building butts up to another
structure). The roof of the building is flat with a corrugated covering in the
interior space. On the open side of the building there is a parking lot for
individuals to park their vehicles and approach the entrance.
The interior of the building is divided into
three main sections: the entrance/checkout, the main shopping area, and the
back of house. The boundaries of these sections are annotated by the roof
height throughout the building (the front and back sections have lower ceilings
than the main area). Painted steel trusses extend across the short, lofted
space to support the ceiling, lights, and other grocery store hardware required
to house food.
The interior of the building is divided into
three main sections: the entrance/checkout, the main shopping area, and the
back of house. The boundaries of these sections are annotated by the roof
height throughout the building (the front and back sections have lower ceilings
than the main area). Painted steel trusses extend across the short, lofted
space to support the ceiling, lights, and other grocery store hardware required
to house food.
This ANT diagram explores the ways in which construction
materials and garments contribute to waste in contemporary society. Surprisingly,
the production of both structures and garments plays only a small role in the
accumulation of waste. The more pressing problem with respect to these two
categories is the trashing of lightly used objects in exchange for new products.
We live in a society that constantly pushes consumption, which encourages us to
purchase things we do not need. Therefore, these sectors, among others,
generation so much waste. When demolition represents more than 90% of debris
generated by construction and demolition and the average American throws away
70 lbs of clothes per year, one must confront the societal structures that are
encouraging this destructive behavior.
How does one reduce the waste produced in these sectors? Or encourage less wasteful behavior? These questions are briefly explored through an analysis of recycling in both sectors, the difficulties that arise with their respective materials, and alternative materials that are less destructive to the environment when they are inevitably tossed in the trash.
How does one reduce the waste produced in these sectors? Or encourage less wasteful behavior? These questions are briefly explored through an analysis of recycling in both sectors, the difficulties that arise with their respective materials, and alternative materials that are less destructive to the environment when they are inevitably tossed in the trash.
My design centers around the accumulation of waste. I
stuffed the space with rolling mounds of discarded metal and garments before
slicing straight pathways through the solid form. This created a myriad of
garbage sections, which I further decorated with construction and garment
objects. A skinny pathway extends out of the main entrance providing a space
for a person to enter the building. From there, an arrangement of pathways is
constructed through an assemblage of angled slices. Abnormal solids and voids
are produced by slicing the garbage mounds with the pathway (like a cookie
cutter).
When objects are stuffed into a confined space, they push on
the boundaries of that space until something breaks. In this space, doors are
ajar, windows are shattered, and brick has crumbled allowing waste to spill out
of the building. Construction and garment objects are scattered over the solid,
garbage masses alluding to the objects that compose these mounds. I annotated
the sides of the pathway slices in a dirt texture to represent what this trash
will eventually become. It is a mystery though as to how long it will take for all
this waste to decompose and that is part of the reason there is such a
disconnect between society and the amount of waste we produce. I annotated the
back room in a different trash texture to provide visual diversity and a sense
of spatial segmentation, which is prevalent in the original building.
This parallax video starts on the north side of the building
(the entrance) and traverses south towards the back of the building. The entrance
is a glass enclosing with automatic doors that no longer work and are left
ajar. Garment waste, dressers, mirrors, construction cones, lumber, brick, and
cinder block are embedded in the dirt and placed on top of the mounds to
further detail the blend of these solid forms. In the back section of the
building, we can see one of the waste mounds breaking through the deteriorating
roof, furthering the idea of the building being stuffed and suggesting that one
day, the construction materials containing this mess will succumb to time and perpetuate
the narrative.
The spatial experience is one of order amidst chaos. The slicing produces clean, delineated pathways that cut through a large, solid, amorphous form. The curvilinear form reaches its greatest height on the perimeter of the building, with the back space housing the largest mounds. This is synonymous with human tendencies to stuff the undesirable in places out of sight.