keynote features - Borrowing it’s construction delivery techniques from industrial and automotive design, the project’s major elements are designed as a series of high-tech components that are manufactured under rigorous factory conditions and assembled on-site.
awards - 2013 Western Mountain Region AIA - http://aiawmr.org/awards/design-awards/, 2013 AIA Colorado South - http://www.aiacolorado.org/awards/AIAColoradoSouthAwards/Archive.aspx, 2014 Re-Thinking the Future International Design and Sustainability Award http://www.re-thinkingthefuture.org/portfolio/billboard-house-markharris-architects/
architectural narrative - The idea of habitable space within the confines of an advertisement billboard brings to mind several notions about the rituals of habitation and the narratives between architecture, landscape, and alternative atmospheres. The billboard stands in a secluded landscape and is seen in and of itself as a solitary figure. By its own nature, the billboard is less a 'natural' setting for living, and therefore gives itself much more readily to the contemplative setting of de-familiarization. Although the billboard does not de-'familiarize the spaces and events that take place within, it does, nevertheless, de-familiarize our normal behavior and call to attention our own need to abstract what might otherwise be ‘natural’ activities.
The program includes living quarters within the confines of a typical roadside advertisement billboard to include living and eating space, two bedroom, studio/workshop, rooftop living terraces, and porches where possible. Structure must incorporate active and passive solar energy, passive water conservation, and natural cooling and heating systems.
The Billboard Project transforms its primary function from one of singular symbol (consumerism) to one of active use (residential). In this form, the billboard is no longer simply a symbol within the landscape, but rather an active participant. A previous concentration on the billboard as an object in the landscape is subjugated to its suggestion of an environment beyond the highway. What was once centered on nowhere is now an indicator of its exact location.
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