Gambit

 

Dealing with four seasons of extremes temperature and exposed in three hundred sixty degrees to the surrounding winds and atmosphere, the water towers of abandoned Detroit give a fruitful breeding ground of experimental labs for interventions of variable climactic conditions. In the house as thesis gambit the water tower is a shelter of refuge as well as itself seeking refuge from the terrain vague it has been identified with. By controlling the outcome of weather and climate rather than the weather and climate themselves we can trace patterns and intervene in critical approaches towards remediating abandoned spaces. Simple acts of raw resources collect themselves into a system networked together for the use of occupancy and production. At the first level of intervention the tower is fit to prepare for all seasons.

Above the ground and atop a terrain vague territory of itself, the abandoned water towers in Detroit allow for an escape and catalog of the city from high above. The roof and its water tower remnant both give opportunities for intervention and living capacity. Exploding the water tower into a series of panels that can shift and respond to the current season and conditions gives flexibility and adaptability to a once derelict artifact. This series of layers can shift to allow the walls to breathe or insulate. A layer of striated surface covers the roof, agitated by seeds and debris carried onto the roof by the wild occupants of the city flying overhead and the breezes from the river carrying them there, begins to emerge throughout the seasons. With the simple placement of a striated surface, water can be collected, roots can be planted, and life and vitality can emerge. Moving up the tower, the manipulation of the tower and its materials transitions the users space from outside to in. It is the blurring of thresholds and the capturing of atmosphere that helps define architecture of a place set in as part of the systems of a site rather that a barrier to them.