Whither Ruins asks the disciplinary questions of how is meaning attached to architecture? and, does architecture continue to have value after the building is no longer inhabitable?  The thesis tackles these poignant and timely issues by using the techniques of casting and video sited within the context of Detroit, a city struggling to retain its rich architectural legacy. 

 

The video takes the discussion about ruins outside of the academy and into the city.  It documents the actual process of demolition at a Historic District Commission hearing and interviews the people involved in deciding the fate of Detroit’s historic architecture: a government employee, a preservationist and a Detroit resident, as a means to investigate the factors that have created an abundance of ruins in Detroit such as the capitalist economy, the financial difficulties of the city, and the iconoclastic destruction of vacant buildings to erase the symbols of the City’s ailments.

 

When a souvenir’s referent no longer exists, a small replica assumes a new and different meaning.  Throughout the video the viewer encounters footage of the process of casting.  Without being given any context, the viewer is unable to associate any meaning to the process beyond what is readily apparent.  As the film progresses the viewer slowly learns that the casts are being taken from vacant historic buildings that are currently in danger of being demolished, or ones that are already gone.  Without context, the standalone casts function as an objectified replica of a building, spotlighting materiality and tectonics.  Contextualized, they become a symbol of the manifold of [often contradictory] meanings that are assigned to [historic] architecture.  These casts propose alternate methods of preservation for a city that has limited resources. 

 

The act of casting and the various meanings a cast takes on has broader applications within the discipline by showing what happens when a design leaves its conceptual existence within the studio-based realm of representation and  becomes a politicized object within the real world.  It provokes both architects and the public to question what meanings a building can take on after it is built, and after it ceases to satisfy the function of shelter.