While we are decompressing from our wonderful trip to The Happiest Place On Earth, I thought I'd share this project, part of a series of projects that I've really wanted to put out there but never had the opportunity to do so. I have a lot of friends' projects I'd like to share here too, eventually. I have a lot of friends who have a lot of brilliant projects, heretofore unpublished.
My architecture school peers probably wouldn't remember this project as one of my big successes, but my entry in the 1991 Lyceum Fellowship Competition was one of my most favorite projects I ever designed in school. A bicycle factory in foothills adjacent to ancient ruins outside of Mexico City.
An earthen structure with wide breezeways cutting through the dim, northlit, cool inner production spaces. On the left side of this photo is the test track running through two parts of the factory, with an exterior observation overlook and break area for the factory employees. Every area to be inhabited in the compound is shaded or protected by thermal mass.
Whenever I look at this photo of the model, all Plastilina clay, hot glue and chip board, I am transfixed. I just think it is so beautiful. I wish I would've won that competition. Do you ever get that feeling that you're going to win something like this, but then you don't? That's how convinced I felt when we mailed our entries off to the judges.
One day I'd like to incorporate some of the ideas from this project into our own place, if the climate allows. Sometimes, if you want to get something done, you've got to do it yourself.
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