PROJECT BRIEF

create a habitable structure for an occupant of your choosing in a national park.

MATERIALS

  • the building materials used within a PRECEDENT assigned to you

    • PRECEDENT: Teatro Oficina- Lina Bo Bardi- 1958- Brazil

  • natural materials found within the park

SITE: ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

The Cult of Abbey

Edward Abbey is a foundational figure within the conservation movement of the desert southwest. His literary muses can be found throughout Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and of course, his great love; Utah where he spent time as a Park Ranger in Arches National Park from 1957-1958. His time in the park is immortalized in his tome Desert Solitaire which he published in 1968. Part-poetry part-manifesto Abbey laments the looming industrialization of the park, humanity’s fraught relationship with nature, and its conservation while simultaneously celebrating the landscape he considered the most beautiful place in the world. Abbey’s words have beckoned many (including myself) to the fabled red rocks of his writing.

In many ways the Arches that Abbey knew and loved is no longer. Recreated in its image is only a disneylandized, commercial version where the harsh and unrelenting desert that Abbey thought to be the tonic of the modern world has been reduced to roadside attraction and postcard fame.

But some say, out there far beyond the well-traveled trails to Delicate Arch and past the stomped terrain of Balance Rock, this desert of solitude and wonder can still be found.

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

a. Balanced Rock

b. Ed. Abbey’s Trailer Location

c. The Colorado River

d. Windows

e. The Town of Moab population 5,321

f. Manti-La Sals

g. Delicate Arch

h. Petrified Dunes

i. Salt Wash

j. Firey Furnace

k. Devil’s Garden

l. Dinosaur Tracks

m. “THE BACK WAY”

PRECEDENT

teatro oficina

Build a model of precedent section to underline the systems at play and understand the materials in order to implement them in our structure.

MODEL

UNDERLINING THE LIGHTNESS OF INTERVENTION

HEIGHT + CULTIVATION OF VIEWS

SCAFFOLDED TO THE SHELL

PLATFORMED VIEWS

“A venturesome minority will always be eager to set off on their own, and no obstacles should be placed in their path; let them take risks, for godsakes, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches- that is the right and privilege of any free American.”

Edward Abbey

Desert Solitaire

HAYDUKE’S HIDEOUT