Finalist: Flora Kwan
Flora Kwan, 2014 student design awards finalist.
Piranesi: [Th]reading the Repository by Flora Kwan, Unitec Department of Architecture.
The fantastic and oppressive environments portrayed in the prison (carceri) series of etchings by the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778) have long fascinated architects. The organisation of the monumental spaces seems to defy navigation, or even comprehension, but this project seeks to make built sense of Piranesi’s imagined world. What might a contemporary expression of Piranesian principles look like?
Citation
Flora’s proposal explores the mysteries of Piranesian space, as illustrated in the Carceri series of drawings, and expresses a contemporary spatial approach that resonates with Piranesi’s ideas. The scheme is a brave attempt to make design sense, through physical and digital models, of Piranesi’s claustrophobic, labyrinthine vision.
