METABOLIC OFFICE

The Project, explores the possibility of creating a barrier between the Gulf Islands (Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula) of Texas and the forces of ‘nature’. The Islands, form the barrier to the oil infrastructure that produces 2% of the world’s oil.

Hurricanes that have historically ravaged the ‘Carcinogenic coast’ and wiped out temporary leisure architectures on the coast line, are seen as ‘the other’. The Project is a series of interventions along these two islands, that together form a barrier or ‘wind wall’, against the hurricane, which is politically seen as ‘the other’ in its relationship with Texas.

The nature of this undertaking, although megalomaniacal and absurd, is very Texan response to this problem. The barrier, and its meanings (and how they transform) are further investigated through each intervention, and speculations as to how people adapt to them.

It is an attempt to augment the geological barrier of the islands with an architectural one, which is in direct confrontation with not just the physics of the hurricane, but of the idea of a devastating natural force. The Architecture is therefore a manifestation of the absurd Texan whim of ‘Resilience’ The project was also at large a critique of American exceptional ism and the will to exclude through architectural gestures. The project presupposed Trumps Mexican border wall proposal.