N.O.R.M.

Exists as an architecture emergent in three scores. It is at once an architecture of realities (both withdrawn and revealed), an architecture of episodes (mediating among atmospheres and environments), and an architecture of representation (that is being-ness and unto-itself-ness).

LOCATION
Queens, New York

PROGRAM
Cultural, Mixed-Use

YEAR
2018

CLIENT
Socrates Sculpture Park

STATUS
Study

— in saecula saeculorum —

Defined through the polemic of architectural character, not as metaphor but as concrete reality. Made explicit through new technology and media, N.O.R.M. seeks to bridge the divide between that which is real and that which is fiction.

Material Regimes

In this study we began exploring material regimes that alluded to qualities of the known vs. the unknown, the withdrawn vs. the revealed, the human vs the non-human agent, and recognizable vs. the precarious scale. Ultimately, our goal was to develop a material palette that would add a physical and tectonic dimension to NORM, our architectural character.

It was of primary importance to develop material processes and techniques that blurred the boundaries between that which was organic vs. that which was synthetic. Further, we sought to question one’s familiarity with industry standard material through spontaneous material interactions and relationships. Our explorations can be divided into four material categories: multifarious matter, terra matter, cementitious matter, and variegated matter.

N.O.R.M. Character N°1 — Withdrawn

N.O.R.M. shifts from a building that not only appears to be animate and vital, but is truly sensate; crossing perhaps into a surrealist realm.

Public gallery spaces weave between non-normative worlds, creating a tension between human occupiable space and non-occupiable transcendent worlds. This circumstance compelled the development of a speculative, human distribution system which relies on peristaltic contraction as the basis for future mobility within buildings and their immediate surroundings.

N.O.R.M. Character N°2 — Revealed

When doing art direction you want to cover all the areas from being clever and when choosing colors or creating schemes for your new amazing project.

The Wire is the new seat and there are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke when the river arrives.

Credits
—
category. Academic, Building

project team. Andrew Matia & Andrew Homick

where. PennDesign Core 602

critic. Simon Kim