The Architect is the Bank Robber and the Bank Robber is the Architect.

My architectural undergraduate degree project, completed at Woodbury University in the Spring of 2012, hopes to set forth a theoretical discussion about the architectural effects of a bank robbery and whether or not an architectural solution exists.

Amongst the rich and powerful, the architect is a key conspirator in the expression of personal legacy and wealth through the edifice, whereas the bank robber destabilizes the structure of capitalism through spatial interrogation. However, when one looks at their manipulation of space, the two are quite similar.

Both the architect and the bank robber endure a process of extensive research, long term planning, and analysis of a building’s efficiency. Both use the physical building as a device in order to reach a goal.

However, this goal has been compromised in regards to the financial institution. The structure of the contemporary financial institution has outgrown the physical confines of the traditional bank. However, despite the migration of banking services to the Web, the residue of the physical bank still holds some power as programmatic space.

Therefore, my degree project hopes to redefine the function and layout of the traditional bank using the transitory program of the bank robbery and the static program of mini-storage as a catalyst for design. Analyzing and dissecting the movements of the bank robber in order to create splices of circulation, an armature is generated that will allow for new programmatic nodes to occur. Coupled with material logics, this allows for tangible goods.

Thus, a new financial institution is created and a new meaning of the "Bank" can be formed.

Features: Archdaily, Designboom