stpmj: Dissolving Arch

摘要

The project Dissolving Arch is a weather-specific installation located in Jeju Island. The island has a long rainy and humid period in summer. The structure is designed to react to rain and humidity, exploring the constituents of masonry and reflecting the time of weather changes. At the beginning the structure stands as a solid brick vault. Yet it is slowly dissolved in the hot and rainy periods of Jeju to produce a light, porous skeleton made of the remaining mortar, connecting people with nature. The project started with curiosity about the constituents of brick and brick structures. Instead of clay bricks, the arch is built up with rock salt units, measuring 200 × 100 × 50 mm, with cement mortar. Two distinctive materialities of the brick - permeable to light and soluble - create an interesting relationship among the status changes. Although blocked off from the outside, the space is illuminated by light filtering through the salt brick. In the dissolving process people start experiencing nature outside through the porosity of the structure, as it begins to allow more light in and at the same time provides a better connection with nature. The final state of the arch is one which allows light to penetrate and blurs the barrier between inside and outside. It is a narrative about an isolated and solid object that transforms into an open and framed structure, creating another dialogue of people and nature.