DOME CITY
" The city where I struggle to speak, I am a prisoner. "
Marco explored themes of language, psychology of space, and city living for his 5th-year capstone project at the Rhode Island School of Design in the Department of Architecture. Entitled "Dome City", Marco's thesis project journeyed through experiments of material manipulation, collage making, plaster castings, and films to find a stylistic language of architecture that would speak to his experiences inside the mind of an individual creating and occupying a city.
Before beginning his thesis year, two life events would occur that would incite the excursion of Dome City. First, Marco witnessed his grandmother passed away in a hospice in suburban Fort Worth, Texas. Second, Marco would spend 11 days in a mental healthcare facility and be diagnosed with Bipolar Personality Disorder, also known as Manic-Depression disorder. These two life events, grouped with the works and writings of famed architect Louis Khan, ignited an urge to venture into the psychology of architecture.
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"You say to a brick, “Brick, what do you want to be?” Brick says to you, “I'd like to be an arch.” If you say to the brick, “Arches are expensive, I can use a concrete lintel over an opening instead. What do you think of that, brick?” Brick responds, saying: “I would like to be an arch.” —Louis Kahn
Excerpt from "Nathaniel Kahn's 2003 documentary "My Architect", 1971.
4 Studies of Aluminum (Above).
Abstract folding exercises to find aluminum's desired shape.
In the summer leading up to his thesis year, Marco dove into Louis Khan's theory of design language. By this point, Marco had already developed a base for his architectural language: strong geometric shapes, flat, bold primary colors, and a long iterative process. To see examples of work before the thesis year, check out the "Retreat Tower" or "Sublime Paperclip" projects in the RISD Architecture 2013-2018 tab.
As a first-generation Mexican American from a mid-sized city in Texas, Marco was always hyper-aware of the boundaries and protocols of architecture. From the early 90's to the 2010's, the area he grew up in was
He would notice how your visible otherness
ability to communicate would determine your level of safety in any setting. Effective linguistic communication earns you first entry and second indifference as a visible outsider. However, inability to communicate sires discomfort and conditional otherness or unpleasant indifference birthing self-imposed discomfort. In his grandmother's hospice facility, the frigid beige walls and dismal symmetrical hallways were a place where Marco never spoke a word. He was very aware that this incandescent-lit building would be the last residence of his grandmother. After her passing, the idea of residence and where you live and die, or would like to be when you are alive and then eventually die, would then onwards be an intrusive thought in every room, building, and city.
As a child of immigrant parents, language as access was a natural concept to understand and abide by. As he grew older, Marco became an avid speaker and pupil of complex language. Doors opened and he made his way to a prestigious art education. 3 years in, a grey cloud would form and sporadically paralyze Marco and his ability to speak about his work and ideas. After months of debilitating junctures, Marco sought help and was admitted to a mental wellness program. There he found a sanctuary among healthcare buildings similar that of his grandmother's hospice. The walls were a warm grey, the hallways asymmetrical, and there was a hodgepodge of miss-matched colored chairs and other furniture. Reckoning with a broken brain among other broken people for 11 days, Marco was the happiest he ever felt.
Road (Above-Left), Gate (Above-ceenter), Ambulance (Above-right).
Abstract paper collages of city symbols.
To earn a spot as a thesis student, make had to write a statement which would be compelling genesis for work to come. See below,
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Neologism, or new-utterance, is a term used to describe a newly born or isolated word entering common use. Sonder, in German meaning special and in French meaning to probe, was a new-[English]-utterance with a much more colorful meaning than its French and German predecessors. The modern sonder, is a word that is used to describe the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own, and that epic stories are occurring invisibly all around you. Somehow our [English] language had not yet been able to express this thought. That is until now, when someone, at some point, thad athe urge to a niche void and uttered sonder for the time. [This ^^ as a young architect was thrilling to ponder.]
Both terms, neologism and sonder, I encountered in conversations with my linguist friend at Brown [University]. She first used the term to describe a moment that stood out to her. A besonder sonder, or an especially *special* encounter with a passerby who in my linguist friend's brisk walk to class, recognize an untold somber story woven into the teary eyes of a crossed armed stranger. An image that kept intruding her waking thougts.
The city is a series of disconnected events. My thesis is to see the invisible and untangle the stories currently dissolved in the cacophony. [Like Khan, rather than talking to people] I want to talk to bricks, hear what the gardens have to say, and have a argument with the Sun. If there is a way to speak to the invisible and unheard inhabitants of the city, it will be my task to connect with them and share what they have to say.
"
- Thesis Candidate Statement. M.a.aguirre. 2017
At the time of writing the above statement, Marco was contemplating what he wanted to say about architecture and what it meant to be a good architect. His initial conclusion was that he would need to become like a linguist and find a new-utterance that would gainfully add to the vocabulary of architecture. No easy feat! Marco also concluded that his thesis year would be the year that he would find a stylistic language that would become the young architects "brand" and identifiable design approach which he would use for the rest of his career. Check out Marco's most recent works on Instagram (@m-a-aguirre) and see if you think he succeeded in this manner.
Collage of the Cacophony (Above).
Abstract drawing of the city.
Having been successfully granted a thesis year project and studio space, Marco was chosen to join the thesis group of David Gersten, an accomplished artist, educator and pupil of John Hedjuk.
To begin my thesis exploration, my first assignment was to methodically explore many different stylistic languages and find something that would speak to my ideas and what I had to say about architecture. I began with simple actions and observing how materials would respond.
Find terms in architecture that have yet to be uttered. I am here to have encounters, find voids, create new-utterances, a learn a language that speaks to the city.
He would see how some individuals would walk freely and how others were trapped. Then sometimes we would see the same individuals, or their equivalents, flip to the other side of freedom and imprisonment. Place always seem to triggers these swings. For example, the feeling of strolling a retail block knowing you can afford any item from any one of those shops. The opposite would be a financially insecure individual knowing all
living, especially as it would be experienced in the mind of newcomer, outsider, and immigrant.
Dome city is the space of the human imagination that deals with freedom. Domes are analogies for the power structures that mark what is inside and what is outside, but never distinguishes how we should feel about either. Domes are our rooms, our cities, our minds, domes have the scale we give to them and are, with effort, both our prisons and our sanctuaries.
I have always had trouble reading, writing, and communicating so this is an attempt to move towards my own language and means of representation. To construct a line of thought which offers me the possibility to construct an entrance to spaces, mental or physical, and the questions of freedom that comes with them. I believe language arises from inhabitation, and that the complexity of the cacophony can be accessible to anybody willing to enter the city (my work). This thesis has been my attempt to understand the occupation of “domes” for myself and for others and find ways in and out of them.
Dome City is where consciousness confronts,
amused/confused, entering in and out.
Creation as the hunt, the treachery of images,
Geography mapped and wombs sectioned.
New keys hinged to their locks,
prisons in construction, sanctuaries not.
Dome city is the space of the human imagination that deals with freedom. Domes are analogies for the power structures that mark what is inside and what is outside, but never distinguishes how we should feel about either. Domes are our rooms, our cities, our minds, domes have the scale we give to them and are, with effort, both our prisons and our sanctuaries.
I have always had trouble reading, writing, and communicating so this is an attempt to move towards my own language and means of representation. To construct a line of thought which offers me the possibility to construct an entrance to spaces, mental or physical, and the questions of freedom that comes with them. I believe language arises from inhabitation, and that the complexity of the cacophony can be accessible to anybody willing to enter the city (my work). This thesis has been my attempt to understand the occupation of “domes” for myself and for others and find ways in and out of them.
Dome City is where consciousness confronts,
amused/confused, entering in and out.
Creation as the hunt, the treachery of images,
Geography mapped and wombs sectioned.
New keys hinged to their locks,
prisons in construction, sanctuaries not.
Dome city is the space of the human imagination that deals with freedom. Domes are analogies for the power structures that mark what is inside and what is outside, but never distinguishes how we should feel about either. Domes are our rooms, our cities, our minds, domes have the scale we give to them and are, with effort, both our prisons and our sanctuaries.
I have always had trouble reading, writing, and communicating so this is an attempt to move towards my own language and means of representation. To construct a line of thought which offers me the possibility to construct an entrance to spaces, mental or physical, and the questions of freedom that comes with them. I believe language arises from inhabitation, and that the complexity of the cacophony can be accessible to anybody willing to enter the city (my work). This thesis has been my attempt to understand the occupation of “domes” for myself and for others and find ways in and out of them.
Dome City is where consciousness confronts,
amused/confused, entering in and out.
Creation as the hunt, the treachery of images,
Geography mapped and wombs sectioned.
New keys hinged to their locks,
prisons in construction, sanctuaries not.
Dome city is the space of the human imagination that deals with freedom. Domes are analogies for the power structures that mark what is inside and what is outside, but never distinguishes how we should feel about either. Domes are our rooms, our cities, our minds, domes have the scale we give to them and are, with effort, both our prisons and our sanctuaries.
I have always had trouble reading, writing, and communicating so this is an attempt to move towards my own language and means of representation. To construct a line of thought which offers me the possibility to construct an entrance to spaces, mental or physical, and the questions of freedom that comes with them. I believe language arises from inhabitation, and that the complexity of the cacophony can be accessible to anybody willing to enter the city (my work). This thesis has been my attempt to understand the occupation of “domes” for myself and for others and find ways in and out of them.
Dome City is where consciousness confronts,
amused/confused, entering in and out.
Creation as the hunt, the treachery of images,
Geography mapped and wombs sectioned.
New keys hinged to their locks,
prisons in construction, sanctuaries not.
Dome city is the space of the human imagination that deals with freedom. Domes are analogies for the power structures that mark what is inside and what is outside, but never distinguishes how we should feel about either. Domes are our rooms, our cities, our minds, domes have the scale we give to them and are, with effort, both our prisons and our sanctuaries.
I have always had trouble reading, writing, and communicating so this is an attempt to move towards my own language and means of representation. To construct a line of thought which offers me the possibility to construct an entrance to spaces, mental or physical, and the questions of freedom that comes with them. I believe language arises from inhabitation, and that the complexity of the cacophony can be accessible to anybody willing to enter the city (my work). This thesis has been my attempt to understand the occupation of “domes” for myself and for others and find ways in and out of them.
Dome City is where consciousness confronts,
amused/confused, entering in and out.
Creation as the hunt, the treachery of images,
Geography mapped and wombs sectioned.
New keys hinged to their locks,
prisons in construction, sanctuaries not.
Dome city is the space of the human imagination that deals with freedom. Domes are analogies for the power structures that mark what is inside and what is outside, but never distinguishes how we should feel about either. Domes are our rooms, our cities, our minds, domes have the scale we give to them and are, with effort, both our prisons and our sanctuaries.
I have always had trouble reading, writing, and communicating so this is an attempt to move towards my own language and means of representation. To construct a line of thought which offers me the possibility to construct an entrance to spaces, mental or physical, and the questions of freedom that comes with them. I believe language arises from inhabitation, and that the complexity of the cacophony can be accessible to anybody willing to enter the city (my work). This thesis has been my attempt to understand the occupation of “domes” for myself and for others and find ways in and out of them.
Dome City is where consciousness confronts,
amused/confused, entering in and out.
Creation as the hunt, the treachery of images,
Geography mapped and wombs sectioned.
New keys hinged to their locks,
prisons in construction, sanctuaries not.
Dome city is the space of the human imagination that deals with freedom. Domes are analogies for the power structures that mark what is inside and what is outside, but never distinguishes how we should feel about either. Domes are our rooms, our cities, our minds, domes have the scale we give to them and are, with effort, both our prisons and our sanctuaries.
I have always had trouble reading, writing, and communicating so this is an attempt to move towards my own language and means of representation. To construct a line of thought which offers me the possibility to construct an entrance to spaces, mental or physical, and the questions of freedom that comes with them. I believe language arises from inhabitation, and that the complexity of the cacophony can be accessible to anybody willing to enter the city (my work). This thesis has been my attempt to understand the occupation of “domes” for myself and for others and find ways in and out of them.
Dome City is where consciousness confronts,
amused/confused, entering in and out.
Creation as the hunt, the treachery of images,
Geography mapped and wombs sectioned.
New keys hinged to their locks,
prisons in construction, sanctuaries not.
Dome city is the space of the human imagination that deals with freedom. Domes are analogies for the power structures that mark what is inside and what is outside, but never distinguishes how we should feel about either. Domes are our rooms, our cities, our minds, domes have the scale we give to them and are, with effort, both our prisons and our sanctuaries.
I have always had trouble reading, writing, and communicating so this is an attempt to move towards my own language and means of representation. To construct a line of thought which offers me the possibility to construct an entrance to spaces, mental or physical, and the questions of freedom that comes with them. I believe language arises from inhabitation, and that the complexity of the cacophony can be accessible to anybody willing to enter the city (my work). This thesis has been my attempt to understand the occupation of “domes” for myself and for others and find ways in and out of them.
Dome City is where consciousness confronts,
amused/confused, entering in and out.
Creation as the hunt, the treachery of images,
Geography mapped and wombs sectioned.
New keys hinged to their locks,
prisons in construction, sanctuaries not.