Kickstarter

BRIEF PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

As a collective of four architects, we want to collaborate with the Kickstarter community in the design of a new city, created through a collage of spaces around the world. To begin the project, we've created a series of four drawings, each portraying an imaginative city bounded only by a square grid and our eccentric minds. For the next part of the project, we want to reach out to the public, asking all donors to submit an image or google map link of a location with which they feel a personal attachment, somewhere that grabs their attention and curiosity. With this catalog of images, we will assemble and draw a new hybrid city, which will then be constructed as a 3D model and exhibited in a Berlin gallery, in Rome, and beyond. The final product is a city with international foundations, fueled and assembled through social media.

id / noun / the part of the mind in which innate instinctive impulses and primary processes are manifest

MORE INFO: [see the final 4 drawings BELOW, or on our website]

hitheryon.com

Why is this project on Kickstarter?

What we love most about Kickstarter is that it allows people to communicate with the public in the midst of the creative process. We wanted to use this platform not only for funding, but in a way that allows the public to have an effect on the work being created. The success of our project hinges on the fact that Kickstarter is a community of creative people living across the globe, all with different and equally valuable opinions of what makes an interesting and memorable architectural (or natural) space. 

What are the three parts of this project?

1. DRAW (fiction): blank city grid + complete creative freedom + four unrestrained architects

2. DRAW (reality): blank city grid + collage of interesting locations (chosen by you!) + four responsive architects

3. BUILD: 3D models of the contrasting cities, installed in an exhibition space

How did you make the first set of drawings?

Like an architect with an empty plot of land, we each started by filling in the same square footage of blank space on each drawing (one 12 x 12cm square, four 6 x 6cm squares, sixteen 3 x 3cm squares, or sixty-four 1.5 x 1.5cm squares), then when finished with that round, we switched positions and drew on the next grid. Around and around we went, 6 times around the circle, playing off of each other's styles and ideas. The beginning of the drawing process provided for complete artistic freedom, a blank slate with no pre-existing ideas. As time went on, we had to start adjusting our individual narratives in order to cooperate with each other's creations. 

What exactly would I need to send you?

After the funding process is complete, we will contact all donors with simple instructions - requesting an image or a google map link of your favorite location in the world, be it a landscape or a built form. It would be best if you could choose a place with which you feel a personal attachment, not necessarily your home or private space, but somewhere that grabs your interest and curiosity. That place you go when you need to feel at peace, or feel inspired. That place you like to bring visitors when they're in town. Or that place you only visited once but it's forever stuck in your mind. We would love for you to include a few sentences describing what about the site engages you, but no pressure on the writing - it's simply to help us see it through your eyes, and the text will not be included in the exhibition. However, with your permission we would like to include the names of all contributors within the presentation of the exhibition.  Participating in this process is of course not required with your donation, but we hope you'd enjoy playing this key role in our project. You will be an important collaborator in the creative process!

How will you use the image/link I send you?

After compiling a catalog of location images from all donors (from $1 to $900 - all donors may submit!), the four of us will study the submissions and gradually create a collage of a new hybrid city. Using our architecture backgrounds, we'll attempt to turn the international foundations into one cohesive city. Certain photos will become pivotal intersections in the city grid, while others will act as connecting spaces. Once the collage is complete, we'll convert it into a primary drawing with a basic framework of lines taken directly from the collage. When the framework is in place, we will each approach the drawings collaboratively, filling in certain areas in styles that complement the specific location and your descriptions. While all donors can submit an image, only those who donate $50 or more will receive a print or original drawing based on the location image they submit. All those donating less than $50 will still be a huge help in creating this expansive catalog of interesting spaces, however we can't guarantee the photo will used in creating our final hybrid city.

What happens after the drawings are complete?

With the money you graciously donate, we will take our collaborative creations and create physical models of the different cities. Squares will become cubes of various materials, carved and constructed to become skyscrapers or public parks, among endless possibilities. For the exhibition, we want to avoid displaying the drawings and built cities as static works of art on a wall or pedestal. It's important that people have the ability to inhabit the drawings and experience the 3D forms as if they were constructed in actual size. In order to do this we have to create a series of apparatuses that will allow the drawings to lie flat, at a height near eye-level. When viewed from this angle, the sheet of paper becomes the surface of the earth, and the spectators can place themselves upon it. The 3D models will also be elevated off the ground in a way that allows the spectators to walk within and between the sections of the city. Instead of seeing the cities through the eyes of giants, towering over miniature worlds, spectators will see our new world at familiar eye-level.

Why are you reaching out to the public in this way?

Hither Yon was founded on the idea that design is never an independent endeavor, but instead exists within a larger interrelated web. With that fact in mind, we think it's important to always consider the existing context and historical background of an architectural site. Part 1 and Part 2 of our project provide two contradictory modes of working - and an interesting study on how creativity performs in complete freedom versus the restrictions of reality. By reaching out to the public for help in the creation of Part 2, we are keeping ourselves in check, making sure we don't drift entirely into our own limited minds, and instead let our designs cooperate with great examples already out there in the world. There is often a lack of communication between the designer and the people that will actually be using the space. In that light, this project flips the design process around, by beginning with a consideration of your experiences and ending in a responsive architectural design.

SCALE I : [1.5 x 1.5 cm grid]

SCALE II : [3 x 3 cm grid]

SCALE III : [6 x 6 cm grid]

SCALE IV : [12 x 12 cm grid]

[note: all shipping charges are included within the payment of each reward!]