Archinect
Michael Villegas

Michael Villegas

Philadelphia, PA, US

anchor

HERDING MYTH

This project attempts to create an architecture which benefits from the perceptive ambiguity of myth by means of an objective archaeological process.  The “Crucifixion of Christ” and more specifically the 14 Stations of the Cross become the narrative which serves to build the mythical landscape on which the architecture is allowed to act.  Recognizing the current condition of Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem as little more than guided tours, the kinetic events produced by the architecture look to sculpt, shape, and draw the environment as a way of revealing the narrative’s spatial potential as well as to reintroduce a level of unexpectedness necessary to engage the vulnerability of the spiritual traveler.  Influenced by thousands of hand carved crosses on a single stone wall within the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, centuries of repetitious work performed on this surface has shifted ownership of the stone landscape from the church to the pilgrim.  In a similar fashion, architectural mechanisms deployed along the historic route will translate acts of the story based on archaeological evidence of local rituals to reform the landscape over time.  Since space is merely a consequence of personal perception directed by those myths, at any scale, which influence both our behavior and/or thought process, any disruption to those beliefs forces us to emend our spatial expectations.  Imposing these kinetic inconsistencies will challenge the user to edit his/her own personal beliefs and attempt to replace one myth with another through the traces which will remain long after the architecture has been withdrawn.

 
Read more

Status: School Project
Location: 31°51'17.88"N 35°4'14.74"E