Thematic Pavilion – Created a proposal for the ThyssenKrupp Elevator Competition.

The wing is an emblematic structure that represents the marriage of diverse forces that can be seen to overlap and coexist – desert and sea . . . land and the sky . . . human need and human desire. While we are all circumscribed by the limitations of our physical presence, our minds allow us to soar above prosaic reality – setting us free from the constraints that weigh us down. It was born out of an opposition to architecture’s traditional responses to both wind and gravity. 
Beginning with the diagram of intersecting circles – the marriage between opposite tendencies, the wing rises from the earth below much like a tent on the desert floor. Large vertical elements reach upward to support curtains of glass that are suspended from above as they are draped over compression rings that define the structure’s wing-like form.  Within the space of its carapace enclosure, the core building grows upward, independent of its shell . . . free to develop un-tethered from the ravages of wind and weather. Seen from across the horizon, the exoskeleton of the wing resembles an airfoil/hi-tech sail that is plowing across the land. 
Without a literal animating mechanism, the external form of the Wing portrays dynamism. Wing, sail, tent, shell, and fin are the defining concepts of the outward identity of the wing. The interior structure, like a pearl that resides in repose, is a jewel-like pristine form that operates like a beehive for human activity. This place for human interaction is flexible and adaptable – not contrived to serve any singular function. in-spired by buckminster Fuller’s crystalline dome over Manhattan, the wing is a glass enclosed place for observation of what is both internal and external.  The aspirations of a culture – of a civilization, removed from the drollery of mundane existence, are exemplified by the structures that it produces. Temples, basilicas, mosques, theaters, skyscrapers, cathedrals, and etc. are all re-flections of the tenor of the times in which they arose.