Research Project from The Architecture (Un)Certainty Lab

A House Deconstructed: 1119 25th Avenue East, Seattle WA 98112

What is the backstory of this house completed in 2018? Most architects might think they know to the answers, but in truth, they are just as ignorant as the general population. This Structural Silence pervades the entire profession and is even fundamental in schools of architecture, where despite a lot of talk about Sustainability, pedagogy refuses to critique the Construction Industry or even to understand the fundamentals of this history and its relationship to neo-liberal capitalism.

Architecture today is addicted to four basic products: steel, concrete, glass, and plastic. Each is a figure in the hyper-industrial world in which we live. We are living in the golden age of the Quadrivium Industrial Complex. Though imagined as elements of modernity, it was only with the neo-liberal economy with the 1990s and the consolidation of the construction industries that these materials could be normalized. The result: never in human history has mining, production, delivery and assembly - the basic activities of the Quadrivium Industrial Complex - been more extensive and cheaper. Yet this golden age will not last forever. What is its future?

A house is like a Black Hole. It sucks a huge amount of energy, creativity, materials, labor and molecules into its orbit. But in the end what does the house tell us about all of that. Nothing.