reconstructive surgery ¦ architectural rehabilitation
¦ response to
disfigurement
¦ the creation of a more socially-palatable image
¦ case-by-case, subjective nature of interventions
¦ using clues from a discipline that shares common aspects with another is a potential approach to the problem-solving process.
technical principles ¦ reconstructive surgery
¦ excision of non-viable tissue
¦ placement of scars
¦ types of wound closure
technical principles ¦ architectural applications
ethical issues ¦ reconstructive surgery
facial allograft transplantation
¦ media portrayal
¦ determinants of expressivity
¦ beauty and the stigma of deformity.
orlan ¦ performance
artist
¦ morphing
¦ ideals of beauty
¦ identity and physical image
ethical issues ¦ architectural applications
the ethics of alterity
¦ interposing poles of constructed identity (history, usage, building
types)
¦ proposing interventions that actively sustain the architectural identity
of the other.
¦ creating a region in which difference can be explored.
process ¦ plastic surgery
hiding labour and pain
associated with the transformation and healing process
¦ the computer-generated morph
¦ before and after photos
¦ post-surgery seclusion
orlan: de-fetishizing the body through the revelation of process to self and
to others
process ¦ architectural applications
¦ revealing
process of intervention
¦ revealing user processes
reinvention ¦
reconstructive surgery
reconstructive surgery
can involve a transformation over time without clear end.
¦ often requires multiple procedures done in several stages
¦ plastic surgery addiction
¦ orlan’s surgeries are not seen as a step towards the completion of a product but as one moment in a perpetually unfolding narrative. thus, identity can never be fully attached to her physical form.
reinvention ¦ architectural applications
how can a building
reinvent itself and fend off obsolescence?
bernard leupen suggests:
¦ making buildings polyvalent
¦ making buildings that are part permanent and part changeable (skin,
volume, etc.)
¦ making semi-permanent buildings, e.g. ‘industrial, flexible
and demountable buildings’.
summary of architectural applications
¦ draw upon
technical language of surgery to inform physical interventions
¦ propose interventions that explore difference between poles of identity
¦ reveal process of intervention in built form
¦ reveal user processes traditionally hidden
¦ make buildings flexible to allow for reinvention