Lightweight Deconstruction tells a story of architectural materiality with a sci-fi twist. It asks, quite literally, "what if Gottfried Semper’s Four Elements of Architecture were in fact elemental"? Taking cues from scientific visualization, the project imagines a series of laboratory-synthesized architectural elements that correspond loosely to those identified by Semper in his 1851 book. Here, "Roof", "Mound", "Hearth", and "Enclosure" are represented as microscopic photographs or CT scans of ethereal assemblies, suggesting an alternative reading of these classical tropes. If materials always tell stories, we’re interested in the new kinds of stories that virtual/digital materials can tell beyond appliques or textures.
