INJECT & IMPLANT

Successful Model Entry to the RA Summer Exhibition 2019.

Inject and Implant was a model created and submitted to the RA Summer Show in 2019 under the theme ‘Sustainability’. The proposal was altered from its original scheme to create a scale-less model based on a conceptual principle rather than that of structure. Behind the idea of inject and implant was a simple notion that sustainable principles could be applied to a piece of product design as much as the city. The “I&I” prototype acted as a public skyscraper-park: a brand new landmark in the heart of the city offering and sustaining a better quality of life, and complimenting the skyline whilst creating a major tourist attraction. “I&I” aimed to be an architectural masterpiece of the high-rise town centre. This new ‘ green for green ’ was to be permanently open to residents, visitors and the general public. When multiplied and placed in the urban grid, the “I&I” can maximise the environmental sustainability of an entire city.

The model submitted for the RA consisted of a natural grass hill constructed as a pure cone that ascended to a series of gardens. Each floor lay on a 10 x 10 grid for which a varied array of 25 columns would be positioned at random across the floorplate. The design sought to utilise the aesthetic language of classical architecture as a critical method to instate a visual disparity to the sky scrapers most commonly being erected in our cities today. The floor-plates were then inscribed with the building’s sustainable agenda up to the 2050 deadline. The model was a mix of 3D printed elements, jesmonite, acrylic rod, watercress, pebble, a variety of moss, and preserved thyme and dill. The project was made in collaboration with Vittorio Maschietto and was based off of his earlier proposal for a public skyscraper made up of purely green space.

Vittorio Maschietto : Vittorio’s work as radical architect and founder of the UFO group from 1967 - 1977 has been extensively referenced in publications, exhibitions and in the leading architectural magazines Domus, Casabella and Modo etc. Recently, his work with UFO was exhibited at the ICA in 2016 ‘Radical Disco: Architecture and Nightlife in Italy, 1965-1975’ and later in 2018 at Vitra ‘Night Fever. Designing Club Culture 1960 – Today’. His current musings on urban perspectives seek to find simple solutions to complex problems. His last publication “Lucca Interrotta” contextualises urban visions for a new liveability of a historic town.

Text written by Florence Maschietto.