Image by Richard Quittenton.

Thesis Review is a collection of conversations, statements and inquiries into the current state of thesis in academia. Thesis projects give a glimpse into the current state of the academic arena while painting a picture for the future of practice. 

Each feature will present a contemporary thesis project through the voice of those that constructed it. This week, we talk to Richard Quittenton, and his thesis produced at The School of Architecture at Taliesin. 

What is the thesis?

Site: 168 is a fib. From afar it looks like a tent with a desert masonry base and a canvas roof – this is the standard shepherds tent design original to Taliesin West. Up close it becomes clear that the base is a screen printed desert masonry texture on polycarbonate panels, and the roof is a screen printed canvas texture on aluminum panels. This dishonesty of materials is meant to speak to a larger dishonesty. Located in the desert, site: 168 looks like a space for reflection and contemplation. It looks like a place for escape and solitude. Upon arrival it becomes clear that site: 168 offers merely the image of these hoped for experiences rather than the experiences themselves. This sleight of hand nudges users to question their motive for traveling into the desert in the first place. It’s a magic trick, to look like one thing but be something completely different.

What was the inspiration for the thesis? 

The thesis was inspired by a scene from a movie. In The Last Jedi, Kylo Ren has a light saber battle with Luke Skywalker. Part way through the battle Kylo realizes he is fighting a hologram of Luke rather than the real Luke. Kylo thus discovers the grand truth of the universe, the real is veiled behind its image. Kylo has no access to the real Luke Skywalker just as we have no access to real objects. The thesis takes this premise and extrapolates it into the digital sphere. Site: 168 appears to offer a real experience of the desert. However, all it offers is an image of this experience rather than the experience itself.

How did it change over the course of the process?

The thesis was always about trying to be critical of the way something looks as opposed to what it actually is and how this change occurs in the digital sphere. What changed was how to use architectural elements to convey this message. Something I was interested from the start was glamping culture. Glamping is when people go into the wilderness and take stunning photographs in order to post them on social media. The real wilderness and the experiences one has there are sort of sacrificed for a beautiful photograph of that wilderness and a hashtag about the experience to be had there. Site: 168 was about trying to investigate this phenomenon. In the end, the project became an inversion of materials. Allowing Site: 168 to look a certain way when viewed online and another way when viewed in real life. Before landing on the material inversion though, the project was a series of holograms, an array of projections on various screens, a giant billboard, a portal to another dimension, and a digital recreation of Plato’s Cave amongst other things. 

What is other angles do you want to continue working on?

I think it would be interesting to continue working on the way architecture and the digital sphere interact with each other. My project begins to investigate this by appearing one way when viewed on social media and then actually being a different way when experienced in person. Architecture is misusing the digital sphere at the moment. I am interested in sorting out a way to change that. 

How does your thesis fit in within the discipline?

I think that architecture and architects are focused on technological advances in sustainability, researching parametric and biomimetic architecture applications, and on seeking approval from others within the discipline. I think these are the wrong things to focus on. The digital sphere has a lot to offer and I think architects are not taking advantage of it. Architecture isn’t about LEED plaques. And it isn’t about membership in the anti-Bjarke-Ingels-club. I’m trying to figure out exactly what my meta project is. I think my thesis project uses architecture to explore the digital sphere in a new way. This is useful to the discipline.

Thesis is about figuring out what architecture is, what the world is, and what you are going to do about it. For me this means discovering architecture is a fib, and the world is capitalism, and I want to subvert everything. 

What did you discover during the process that you did not forsee?

What I discovered during the process is this: no goal is too hard to reach if you have people who believe in you and who are helping you. Completing a thesis is a challenging endeavor. There were a lot of things that I was doing for the first time that I could only afford to do once. Everything from learning how to weld to running a successful Kickstarter campaign. In the end I designed and built a dwelling in the desert, published a 100 page book, and raised over $10,000. The added bonus challenge was that under normal circumstances students get 7 months to complete their thesis, I had a little over 3 months. This was the case because I took a semester off to work with MVRDV and so my graduation track was shifted. At every step I asked the people around me for help and at every step, they were eager to help. It’s a humbling experience to have a goal that you know you can’t reach on your own but to still reach that goal knowing that a great deal of people came to your aid when you needed them. The overwhelming lesson in all of this is that anything is possible when people help you out. 

How do you see this thesis progressing into your career?

I hope that this thesis helps me figure out what my meta project is. I am going to work with Herzog and de Meuron in 2019 and I plan on keeping this thesis in my mind as I go forward. I have been trying to figure out what exactly it means to be an architect for years now, my best thought is that to be an architect is to build things that have ideas. My thesis has an idea – social media sort of ruins authentic experiences. I honestly don’t know what this means for me moving forward. Jeff Kipnis once told me that architects should just build stuff and not worry too much about what it means. I don’t know what he meant exactly but I know I’m interested in philosophy and art and I like to read philosophy and art criticism. I’m interested in what building means. I used to think that reading about these things would make me a better architect, but now I’m not so sure. What I’m trying to say is perhaps reading philosophy, art criticism, theory, poetry and fiction won’t make you a better architect but a better human being. Perhaps to be an architect is to be a better human being and to build about what interests you without worrying too much about what it means. The meaning will come later. That’s my current plan for taking this thesis into my career. 

What are the key moments within your thesis?

The key moments were every single moment from beginning to end. The amount of work it required to pull this off was mammoth. The day I launched the Kickstarter, the day the Kickstarter closed, the day we poured a new concrete slab, the day we transported the project from the shop to the site, and the final days of assembly. These are the landmark moments that came and went with no time to stop and contemplate or celebrate them. Every day was full and every celebration was postponed to an indeterminate later date. 

The thesis was inspired by a scene from a movie. In The Last Jedi, Kylo Ren has a light saber battle with Luke Skywalker. Part way through the battle Kylo realizes he is fighting a hologram of Luke rather than the real Luke. Kylo thus discovers the grand truth of the universe, the real is veiled behind its image. 

What do you wish you would have known before thesis?

I knew exactly what I would have wanted to know. There were setbacks and challenges, and a lot of things I was afraid of. In the end everything worked out. There were a lot of times when it seemed like things were not going to work out. Those times were the most rewarding times of the whole process. When the project began in September I knew almost nothing. By December everything was finished. It was an amazing experience. 

What other thesis projects were on your radar?

There were 6 students working on thesis projects at Taliesin while I was working on mine. I was interested in the projects of Nelson Schleiff, Conor Denison, and Taylor Bode. They will be completing their projects May 2019. Besides their work I was actively reading Mark Jarzombek Digital Stockholm Syndrome in the Post Ontological Age, David Lewis On the Plurality of Worlds, Peter Sloterdijk Spheres: II Globes, Georges Bataille The Accursed Share and other works. 

How did your institution help or guide you through thesis?

Aaron Betsky, the president of The School of Architecture at Taliesin, and Ryan Scavnicky, my thesis advisor, helped me more than I can write down into words. Compiling reading lists, writing, designing, all of these things were back and forth exchanges between the three of us. One of the things Aaron Betsky changed when he took over as president is tasking students to design and build their thesis projects. In the past students had an option to do a written only thesis. I was the first student to graduate under these new requirements. The school did what every good school should, they gave me a goal that was slightly out of reach and then proceeded to encourage me to strive for that goal under any circumstances. More than the faculty and staff helping though, my fellow students helped. There were 7 students who woke up at 6:00am and hiked into the desert with me to pour concrete one morning. There were 9 students who stopped what they were doing and helped carry a 10’x10’x6’ aluminum roof almost a mile through the desert in order to get it on site. The student body rallied around my project and ensured that it was completed. Taliesin is often sold as a school with a great studio culture and sense of community, it really is that place. The school backed me with such resolute confidence that there simply was no way this project could have failed. 

What do you wish could have been different?

Every detail and every connection could have been further resolved, the jpegs that make up the roof and façade could have been put together more thoroughly, the welds could have been smoother, the text could have edited more. The end result is a thesis project though, a dwelling in the desert that another student will live in while s/he designs his or her own thesis. Something I learned is that often when we are given a long time to make decisions we spend all that time procrastinating and then in the final moment make a decision in haste. The notion that design takes time and exploration is a bit of a fallacy. Decisions can come quick, and things become easy. Looking back on it now, the whole thing was easy, problems arose, solutions were found, options presented themselves, choices were made, deadlines came and went, and goals were reached. Charles Bukowski’s grave stone reads “don’t try.” This isn’t a nihilistic sentiment but an encouragement and a reaffirmation that if you have to try at something, you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. The thesis just happened.

If you could do this again what would you change?

Nothing. 

What do you think the current state of thesis is within architecture and how can it improve?

Thesis is about figuring out what architecture is, what the world is, and what you are going to do about it. For me this means discovering architecture is a fib, and the world is capitalism, and I want to subvert everything. The academy seems preoccupied with pursuing prowess and approval rather than architecture. The royal navy of the east coast is battling the pirate ships of the west coast and who teaches where is more important than who teaches what. I think students benefit from being unaware of the politics that govern schools in America. Perhaps as I grow up I will change my opinion on this. But I think thesis should be about answering those three questions, what is architecture? What is the world? What are you going to do about it? Whether Tom Wiscombe is your teacher or Mark Foster Gage is your teacher shouldn’t matter.  I also think it’s silly that every architect refuses to smile in any picture whatsoever.