As an attempt to deconstruct western ideologies of architecture and design, I created a series of abstract blocks that helped me to consider form as function insead of thinking of it the other way around. The materials of construction primarily included balsa wood and various forms of paper. I also tried to introduce elements of more organic construction in terms of the clay blocks to try and disrupt the sterotypical materials used in the processes of model making. This project was more of an explorative process, it took time for me to consider the individual features of each material and how they could be used in conjunction with others to disrupt systems of constructions and various western traditions associated with architecture.

Throughout the course of my art history course during the freshman year of my collegiate experience, we often discusssed ornamentation and different paproaches to design through the use of ornamentation. Western thinkers such as Adolf Loos despised ornamentation, suggesting that it would only serve to distract from the true purpose of design: to function as a problem solving or function based task. Ideologies of simple and efficient design are an inhernetly western prposition that seeks to surpress the more ornament-centric designs of non-western cultures.

As someone who is the child of Indian immigrants, i began to look toward other forms of design in trying to understand what direction I wanted to take this project. At first, I really wanted to focus on creating a system of blocks that would allow me to design more abstractly, to think about the form first over function, because for some elements of design, the form could be the function. I tried to reverse the entire western process of design as a problem solving based practice. This beginning process of thinking led me to begin designing blocks that used sterotypical architecture model making materials, but adding large amounts of ornamentation or adaptability. These blocks had various paper cut outs and were not simple manifestations of their form.

In trying to explore these ideas of western and non western design, I myself had to recognize the influence of western design on me as a resident of a western nation. I also had to recognize that the conflicting ideologies of the location where I was brought up and the location from where my parents come would manifest themselves in this work. The objects of clay and some of the more unique blocks represent my attempts to break free of western culture in my iterative design process. However, some of the more simply shaped blocks show that I too am succumbing to the process of using blocks that are more conformative to western standards.

Instead, I tried to add complexity in terms of overlapping elements within the cubes that invited the audience to wonder about how it was designed. For one block, I created a model of a cube in rhino and subtracted various rectangular-prisms to create a unique form, I then modeled this in paper to explore ornamentation: taking ornamentation to be defined as something that does not supplement the function of the piece, I would imagine this rhino model making process could be designated as a process of ornamentation. However, I would also be remiss if not suggesting that perhaps if form becomes the true function of this piece, then these cuts into the paper would not be considered as ornamentation any longer.

Perhaps I beleive that my work in the field of architecture would no longer be recognized as a result of my attempts to break free of these standards: as a result, even though my idea aims to critique the western approaches to design, I cannot help but construct in western based materials.  This conflict is something that was discussed in critique for this piece, i was ultimately reflective and realized that the next iteration of this process, should I continue, should break away from commonly held materials to suggest that the design principles of the future should learn from the past and adapt to newer circumstances: to not try and correct the past but instead to move into the future with th ehope of learning and being more open-minded in future design based processes. 

For the intial designed, I was inspired by the modular thinking of block systems such as Lego or even tangrams. However, I wanted to create unique individual blocks that do not function as a collective, but can instead function by themselves. These invidiual blocks could inspire an entire design by themselves: instead of focusing on the overall form that is created by all of the blocks together, it is instead focused on the ability of the block to change and create unique and interesting forms. In this way, the blocks are very different from the works of modular design. Once again, I am trying to change standards of construction and building I believe to be associated with the west.

The blocks also have connector pieces and other more plain blocks to act as placeholders for imaginative design. The blocks together can be reconfigured into a variety of designs and each design is inherently temporary. This is to suggest the idea of design as a process that is constantly evolving. The collection of blocks is meant to grow over time, to constantly expand as my approaches to design change throughout the course of my architectural education.

This project was created in response to a prompt where the purpose of the project was to explore the word "ephemerality." This was my spatial final for the second semester at the Rhode Island School of Design. To address this, I began with the thought process of a series of blocks that could be configured in multiple ways, and that the blocks themselves were subject to individual change. Each configuration and block would therefore. be inherently ephemeral. Through this process of thinking and designing, the result is the following project that seeks to dissect western ideologies of design and how I can be more aware of them. Sepcifically, How I can recognize my own position as infljuecned by this design and how i can learn to elan into other forms of design that will be changed moving into the near future.