Next Project

Temple of Memento Mori

Part 2 Project 2021
Ayumi Konishi
University of Greenwich | UK
Our ever-growing thirst for technology and technological advancement is creating a new, scarred landscape that marks and destroys ecologies across the world. A disturbing by- product of this is a new form of elements, what mineralogists call human-caused minerals that encapsulate and reconfigure the elements we are mining into extinction. This proposal seeks to choreograph, manipulate and control these new minerals to create a new architecture that acts as a monumental reminder to future generations, highlighting the consequences of our undying technological fixation.

Set around the, soon to be redundant, iconic NTT telecommunications tower in Tokyo, the building becomes a type of architectural memento-mori, a shrine-like edifice that embalms the entire tower over centuries. The architecture grows through the chemical reactions that occur between the existing metals located throughout the building’s structure and the communication technologies it holds within, alongside contaminated water from the Fukishima Nuclear Power Plant.

The resulting monumental architecture, created from the tiny gadgets that we keep in our pockets, destroys nothing but gives birth to a plethora of new minerals, minerals that hopefully have a brighter future than those we have mined into annihilation.


Tutor(s)


2021
• Page Hits: 3550         • Entry Date: 07 October 2021         • Last Update: 07 October 2021