This work frames air as material, present, and contingent. The Variable Air
Visitors Center and Laboratory is situated in conversation with the Biosphere II
project as it takes on similar issues of curation, awareness, immersion, systems,
proximity, and containment. The first formal gesture is a dramatic elevation from
the ground to a constructed second ground. This gesture engages the notion of
ground by suggesting that, similar to the visitors, the ground is also an occupant
of the air environment. The linear nature of the constructed ground allows the
ground plane to act as a neutral and consistent armature for the situation of
variable and complex experiences. Along the constructed ground, there are a series
of air environments: exterior air, experimentation chambers, high oxygen air, hot
air, cold air, and moving air. These systems are primarily constructed through
mechanical manipulations of air. Between each of these distinct environments,
Follies, spaces of typical regularizing interior air, punctuate and provide
a reference against which the extreme environments can be experienced. This
project uses the built work as an infrastructure for a heightened understanding
of air and a more general awareness of presence in our immediate environment.