Sean Lally

Sean Lally

Prince Charitable Trusts Rome Prize
5 settembre 2011–6 agosto 2012
Professione
Founder, WEATHERS/Sean Lally, Chicago
Titolo del progetto
Gradient Nolli
Descrizione del progetto

If we were to map our cities today, showing not the walls and envelopes, but rather the artificially conditioned, climate-controlled (primarily interior) spaces versus the unconditioned (exterior) context, we would see as striking a dichotomy of figure-ground as we see in Nolli’s eighteenth-century map. When we look at the city not as public versus private space, but as conditioned versus unconditioned space, the surfaces and geometries of architecture are often coincident with and responsible for fortifying these boundaries. Yet as cities vent their infrastructural exhaust, buildings release energy dumps from mechanical systems, and air conditioning spills from commercial spaces onto streets and plazas, it is apparent that this dichotomy is less clear, requiring a gradient reading and mapping of these spaces so they can become design initiatives. These materials can transcend simply being byproducts and spills and instead become initiatives for our public spaces throughout the twelve months.