May 16, 2008 Mosquito Crossing
Ugh, hot. And they say it’s not going to stop just yet. And there was a mosquito in my room last night. Which puts me in mind of:
R&Sie
Mosquito Bottleneck Project, Trinidad
| R&Sie, Mosquito Bottleneck Project, Trinidad, 2003 Collection SFMOMA |
This fourteen-hundred-square-foot home was designed for a media-art collector living on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean, where the heat of West Nile virus is ongoing. The homeowner wanted his residence to insulate him both from the mosquitos that carry the disease and from the standard litany of other environmental and psychological agents that can disturb the sanctuary of a home.
This design proposes a strategy for confronting and embracing one’s fear of mosquitoes—a manipulation of space that aids what the architects call “angst management.” The structure is designed in the form of a horizontal Klein bottle—a kind of three-dimensional Möbius strip—in which exterior surfaces invert to become interior walls and interior volumes intertwine but do not intersect. Thus, mosquitoes can enter the home and live in close proximity to the owner without actually sharing his space, all the while buzzing in a soothing, therapeutic manner.
I saw the computer generated CGI video of this fascinating house when it was at SFMOMA, and would just love it if anyone could tell me where a copy of that CGI video can be obtained. The models of the house were absolutely fascinating too.
August 6th, 2008 at 9:25 pmKlauss,
August 12th, 2008 at 4:14 pmThank you for your interest in this project. You will be happy to know that we will be exhibiting the model and the video of the project in our upcoming spring exhibition titled Sensate: Works from the Architecture + Design Collection. We hope that you can join us in the museum at that time!