Shared Beds °*

BCL * Semi-Monocoque Plywood Structures

DATE 2019

LOCATION Lake Forest, IL

TYPEMaterial Research & Public Installation

COMPETITIONWinner

DESIGN LEADS
David Costanza
Piergianna Mazzocca

BUILD TEAM Philip Niekamp
Ekin Erar
Samantha Schuermann
Sebastian Grande
Jack Hilchey

WITH Andrew Colopy
Robert Booth

OVERVIEWShared Beds is a collaborative project for the 2019 Ragdale Ring Competition. The project challenges the role of the individual vis-à-vis the collective by reconsidering the seemingly inanimate quality of everyday objects such as beds. The installation comprises three interactive communal beds constructed and installed on the grounds of the Ragdale Foundation. The beds act as a communal architecture that challenges the individual and the collective and how these two engage in coordinated play. Two objects describe circles with a diameter of 15 feet. These objects, resting on a tipping axis, teeter back and forth depending on the movement inflicted by each occupant. Instead of the upright position of sitting on a bench or a chair, the bed allows for horizontal occupation. Moreover, in its most abstract sense, the horizontal surface at the top defines a space of rest, avoiding the two-sidedness of a traditional orthogonal bed by making all the possible places of rest equidistant to each other. The largest of the three objects, described by a circle of 21 ft in diameter, has an asymmetrical tipping axis that produces a primary face always in contact with the ground.

DAY 1

DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

PROCESS PHOTOS

BCL

DCS