SPACE︎︎︎
OBJECT︎︎︎
BODY︎︎︎
Junha is currently thinking about a form of architecture that challenges assumptions about use and appropriateness...
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Scale of Water
2024
SPRING 2024
[Tracing scarcity; learning from existing ground conditions and site’s knowledge of water collection]
Qasr Al-Hallabat, a former Roman military fort, shows extensive archeological evidence of the commodification of water - dried-up water canals, wells, and cisterns, as well as agricultural artifacts and irrigation systems -suggesting the historical abundance of natural water, such as rainfalls and rivers. However, with modern climate changes, overgrazing, over-extraction, and geopolitical conflicts, most of Jordan experiences severe scarcity of water today.
Within the scarcity, this design intervention proposes to bring back the legacy and memories of water by turning to the sky, and by shifting our relationship and meaning with water - symbolic, spiritual, experiential, practical, and ecological. The Islamic Quran mentions :
“Water. It is life. It is the material thing nearest to God”.
“He it is Who sends down water from the sky, from it you drink and from it grows the vegetation on which you send your cattle to pasture,
The simple roof and water collection details are designed for different types of water and respond to the movement of water on the existing ground of the qasr. The proposal is anti-capitalistic, anti-extraction, anti-war. It is light, seasonal, and communal. It imagines a humble shade structure that revitalizes what had existed in the past and finds meaning within the scarcity. And by revitalizing the ground, it brings people, plants, and animals to come in to be part of it.