Magnus Casselbrant, Intermediate 3 (2011/2012), Electromagnetic reading at Crypto Center in Tokyo Bay

Mystical Infrastructures or Formulas to Transform into a Snake

Ricardo de Ostos and Nannette Jackowski

Mystical Infrastructures or Formulas to Transform into a Snake Intermediate 3 will investigate the impact of natural resources and their ambivalent role, both commercial and mystical. As much as mineral fields, mines, rivers and forests have an obvious economic value as resources that transcend their face value. By looking closely at alternative cultures and proto-native social practices we will develop alternative infrastructural interventions. The blend of what is impossible to prove, but also impossible to deny, will materialise in the understanding of magical and technological properties.

In Formulas to Transform into a Snake we will study the strange mutation of resources that exist between technology and mythology in different scales through experiments, tests and prototypes. As a departure point we will focus on low-tech and neo-analogue strategies by investigating transformation of material properties in order to shape new territories between physical, chemical and symbolical attributes. In parallel with creative technical research, the role of myths and rituals of neo-urban and indigenous traditions will provide a field of conceptual studies covering potential roles for resources and infrastructural interventions. Studies on mystical rivers, sacred and profane sites, protoplasmic creatures and ancient paganism will broaden the horizon for new breeding grounds of built environments.

Intermediate 3 is a unit strongly based on design, utilising architectural experimentation, literary poetic and interactive technologies to reconfigure infrastructures as social experiences. As the line between magic and technology becomes blurred, we will voyage out on a feverish trip visiting forests and resource-depleted sites. Staring into what lies beyond from the mundane, Intermediate 3 will work on architectures of the supernatural. Amid architectures of intense sensorial speculation, we will discuss the role of resources not only as commodities but also as human techne-logia.

Unit Staff

Nannette Jackowski and Ricardo de Ostos (najadeostos.com) are principals of NaJa & deOstos. They are the authors of The Hanging Cemetery of Baghdad and Pamphlet Architecture 29: Ambiguous Spaces. They have been nominated for the 2012 Iakov Chernikhov prize for young architects around the world. Nannette has worked for Wilkinson Eyre and Zaha Hadid. Ricardo has worked for Peter Cook, Future Systems and Foster + Partners. He has taught at Lund University in Sweden and is currently an Assoc- iate Professor at Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris. He was appointed curator of the Brazilian Pavilion for the London Festival of Architecture in 2008 and 2010.