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Encampment of Other Spaces – Archiprix 2019

The 1:1 model designed for this project is speculative by nature and targets the 21st-century recluse who seeks to escape day-to-day life. I did research into actual examples of present-day recluses and was fascinated by their lifestyles.

A frame for research

Can you explain your choice of subject?
My works stems from a speculative approach and an emerging interest in the idea of a twenty first century hermit who escapes ones everyday life. Trough two different case studies I developed a fascination for a lifestyle which resembles both questions and inspiration to work on a methodology to understand own behaviour and someone else way of seeing beyond internet and contemporary technology to places that need to be looked upon with new eyes and reassessed with a new set of tools in a temporary space and with the idea of a diorama as a display medium and architectural portal, a gate or door into a new way of creating possible scenarios of a human who is trying to divide, define, conceal and control the access to it’s present surroundings.

What or who are your sources of inspiration?
My inspiration comes from vernacular construction techniques and different ways of material production. But also subjects that explore human relationship to space, my work becomes real when the material gesture meets the subject of interest and forms a methodology.

Can you appoint the key moment in your graduation project?
The breakthrough in my work comes when the 1:1 construction starts, that’s when I fully understand my project and its continuation.

A mirror for preparation

Project Text
These examples were the inspiration for my project and generated specific questions about developing a method that allowed me to observe, study and design space for living from a new angle.
A key aspect of designing a space for a 21st-century recluse is the absence of internet and other present-day technologies. The form takes its cue from the diorama, a kind of architectural gateway through which to examine new scenarios for people who seek to define, control and organize their immediate environment and withdraw from the world.

A space for retention

The historical diorama format allows you to think about narratives and the relationships between different objects in spaces but also about becoming part of those narratives and relationships. This project provides a 1:1 framework within which speculative narratives can be tested: call it a laboratory, a work station, a place to test endurance, or a place to prepare mind and body for a spatial experience.

A space for cultivation

The result is a life-sized model that can be used to illustrate and test different forms of dwelling, an imaginary world that can be explored and experienced. It also suggests the presence of a character, the 21st-century recluse. My installation seeks to evoke a fictional and imaginary universe where the boundaries between mental space, built structures and the surrounding landscape have fallen away.

A space for processing

Axonometric view of the construction

Axonometric view of the design

Name
Samuel Kuhfuss Gustavsen

Contact
samuel.kuhfuss@gmail.com
https://cargocollective.com/samuelkuhfuss

When started graduating
September 2017

When finished graduating
June 2018

School/discipline
Gerrit Rietveld Academie / Sandberg Instituut, Interior Architecture