Degree Project

The Impossibility of Possession

The scarcity of agitation in today’s society is agitating. Increasingly, we seem to focus upon a process of smoothing out, perfecting and preserving rather than upon challenging, destabilising and changing established values. This leaves room for a stagnant society.

In architecture, the grotesque is often suppressed as an aesthetic category; it creates a sense of anxiety. In his article titled En Terror Firma Peter Eisenman discusses the importance of disturbing and agitating through architecture. He defines a contemporary grotesque, embodied in the idea of the impossibility of possession.

This design for a cosmetic day clinic and urban park employs this idea and intentionally agitates through denying expectation. Located on a roof top site in central Wellington, it illustrates the absurdity of striving for unnatural aesthetic perfection. Simultaneously it is a celebration of the city’s perpetual process of decay, in particular the archaeological remains of the Te Aro Pa site.