The Machine for Living and Dying, 2009

The central theme of the studio was to rethink the notion of living and dwelling. It began with each student selecting a case study of the natural dwelling habits of a living creature (unlike that of the human) to reconsider the conventions of how a dwelling space is perceived. The machine for living and dying is a youth hospice for terminally ill youths. Cast off at sea, perhaps further away from the cruel realities of life, it is a post-human response to the pain of dying. Playing off the idea of the immobility of the human vs the mobility of the space, the project is a utopian proposal in opposition to the conventionally sterile and cold hospital environment. Focusing on the bee and he workings of the hive, the form is derived through the study of modularity and mathematical logic. The bee hive is a modular structure that functions on the premise of requiring the least amount of material to create the maximum amount of storage space for storing honey. Transposing this idea into architectural design,a series of spatial mappings was conducted to explore the possibilities of creating a modular unit with the least number of planes necessary to create the most number of spaces.