activate and propagate

		Learning from Las Vegas "A sign on a building carries a denotative meaning in the explicit message of its letters and words. It contrasts with the connotative expressions of the other, more architectural elements of the building" Learning from Las Vegas For a building dedicated to propaganda, publicity, and mass diffusion, the exterior façade is of special importance. It needs to be explicit, recognizable. Its “sign” aspect therefore needs to be strong. Shall it be a “duck” or a “decorated shed”? At the beginning of this project I searched for a building that by its whole form could represent and sustain a pre-established ideology. This building would have been this ideology and therefore take a “duck” form. However, if the building now is about publicity, i.e. the art of selling ideas [as opposed to ideas themselves] it needs to be somewhat superficial and easy to modify. It then becomes a “decorated shed” where a convenient interior is covered by an explicit exterior.
Duck: “Where the architectural systems of space, structure, and program are submerged and distorted by an overall symbolic form.” Decorated shed: “Where systems of space and structure are directly at the service of program, and ornament is applied independently of them.
all images from Learning from Las Vegas.
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		DRM - Winter 2005