Graduate Thesis Project

Abstract:

Continuing in the tradition of Utopian societies created by out of touch white men Le Phallicstère is an urban intervention that acts as a commentary on architectural over-reaching doomed to fail. Pieced together by collaging existing design attempts while chopping up and reintroducing them in a way that is marketably palatable under capitalism. The linear city literally putting itself above "others" where residents are reprogrammed to be compliant and lends itself to absurdist programming in an attempt to ask, "What happens when the commodification of architecture becomes so estranged from a practice and starts becoming more of a series of products for sale.   

This project relates to Le Corbusier's Unite d' Habitation, Ledoux's House of Pleasure and Koolhaas's Exodus and how they intersect with utopian architectural discourse. When teasing the meaning out of an ideal city you need to derive the virtue of design, the process and the development of architecture as a final proposal. Commodifying architecture allows for an alienation of the "designer" from their work, their wider world and fellow man. This in turn creates a kind of prescribed, isolated "one size fits all" solution you often see in utopian projects.   

The problems of utopia are numerous and well documented. Like the “machine” quality of Pleasure House, the cold and impersonal nature of Unite De Habitation and the voluntary imprisonment and segregation of community in Koolhass’s Exodus. How do we move forward? Can we even move forward? Le Phallicstere is a proposal for exploration of these pitfalls through theatrical simulations. These simulations can lend themselves to design development and ironic demonstrations of architectural discourse, societal control and maximizing profit.