Concept

In the process of trying to decipher our complex world we have always given names to things. We devise highly elaborate systems of classification in order to keep a record of common and dissimilar traits in an attempt to produce the perfect mental map of every living and non-living entity that occupies the world we live in. Like an obsessive collector of butterflies chasing that elusive moment when each and every entomological category is complete, we’ve always been determined throughout history to rationalize the unknown.

 

Given that impulse towards a highly deterministic world, imagine for a moment, all the beautiful things that reside out-of-place, that defy logic and exist as strange and aberrant anomalies. What an extraordinary parallel universe we find behind the scenes comprised of a vast constellation of natural and synthetic beings that operate according to an entirely different set of accepted theological, cultural, and scientific norms.

 

Now imagine an architecture that draws its inspiration from non-standard material, deviant building typologies, and seemingly contradictory spatial and organizational strategies that serve as the basis to reinvent the underlying principles of architecture for the 21st century. Given that as the theoretical context, Caviar 3000 sought to blur the boundary between inside and outside, between living and non-living material systems, between ornament and structure and what we traditionally define as fiction and reality.

 

Invitational Competition

Invited competition entry, Lanzhou, China. Selected as one of five international architecture firms to submit a design proposal for a new urban-design planning museum located In Lanzhou, China. Proposed as the new gateway for this landmark city located in the Northwest of China, our proposal was comprised of over a million square feet and was conceived as a contemporary urban attraction integrating cutting-edge, next-generation sustainable building technology.