TYPE Material Research & Public Installation
DATE 2019
LOCATION Lake Forest, IL
COMPETITIONWinner
DESIGN LEADS
David Costanza
Piergianna Mazzocca
BUILD TEAM Philip Niekamp
Ekin Erar
Samantha Schuermann
Sebastian Grande
Jack Hilchey
WITH Andrew Colopy
Robert Booth
Shared 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 is composed of three interactive communal beds, constructed and installed on the grounds of the Ragdale Foundation. The beds act as a communal form of architecture that challenges the role of the individual and the collective and how these two engage in coordinated play. Two of the objects are described by a circle of 15 ft in diameter. Resting on a tipping axis, these objects 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, the horizontal surface at the top, in its most abstract sense, 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 3 objects, described by a circle of 21 ft in diameter, has an asymmetrical tipping axis that produces a primary face that is always in contact with the ground.