Student Work
Title
Derelict Monument
Project Description
An austere monolith hovers just beneath the horizon, anchoring into the slope of the landscape. Within this block in the Texan desert are five artists’ residences. In the distance, Donald Judd’s architectural structures sit as derelict monuments within a field of unfinished barrack foundations. The block echoes the rhythm of these concrete traces and asks which came first, the foundations or the colony? Studios, residences, galleries, and communal spaces exist within the monolith around a courtyard of preserved earth, creating moments of surprise, unexpected collaboration and opportunities to meander through unfolding courtyards in search of solitude. Eschewing narrative, image, and abstraction, the building creates pure form derived from experience, redefining the relationship between an ascetic life and artistic production.