BaltropProtocol
By studying David Hammons’ Day’s End, we arrived at Alvin Baltrop, who photographed the queer life that inhabited the Piers during the 1970s and 80s.Alvin taught us to look at the Piers differently, but more importantly, to understand better the biases of the art world and society as a whole. As a forgotten artist, he was cast aside by the art industry until his death, at that point becoming ‘relevant’. His story inspired us to question what we wanted to design for this project.
We then studied ourselves introspectively, and through the appreciation of Alvin’s photographs we began to work differently together, too. Conversation became the center point of our design process, carving time in our schedules to talk and share what we had learned from looking at the pictures. We made this a daily ritual, understanding each other better, and sharing a surprising open-mindedness towards the material we were dealing with. As two straight men from the Mediterranean, our experience with queer life and culture was quite limited, and recognizing this, we confronted it together. This ultimately led us to write the following design protocol:
1. Nothing is forgotten, just omitted or overlooked. Searching for missed stories is not only a better way to understand culture at its base, but also transformative on a personal basis.
2. Every community has a specific history which is always vulnerable to being misrepresented, appropriated and romanticized. It is important to resist this urge, as it usually simplifies the complex relationships that are manifested through the architecture that this community interacts with.
3. Our bias is inevitable and the most we can do is recognize its presence and never give up the process of confronting it.
4. The process of mourning and honoring past lives is as important as the intention of creating something new for new lives. The relationship that future and past has with each other is not always clear, and being aware of this ambiguity can lead to a better understanding of the passing of time.
5. The way in which institutions manipulate history to make room for themselves in the world can be questioned through architectural practice.
This protocol ultimately shows that we are eager to learn and ready to contest ourrole as future architects.
By studying David Hammons’ Day’s End, we arrived at Alvin Baltrop, who photographed the queer life that inhabited the Piers during the 1970s and 80s.Alvin taught us to look at the Piers differently, but more importantly, to understand better the biases of the art world and society as a whole. As a forgotten artist, he was cast aside by the art industry until his death, at that point becoming ‘relevant’. His story inspired us to question what we wanted to design for this project.
We then studied ourselves introspectively, and through the appreciation of Alvin’s photographs we began to work differently together, too. Conversation became the center point of our design process, carving time in our schedules to talk and share what we had learned from looking at the pictures. We made this a daily ritual, understanding each other better, and sharing a surprising open-mindedness towards the material we were dealing with. As two straight men from the Mediterranean, our experience with queer life and culture was quite limited, and recognizing this, we confronted it together. This ultimately led us to write the following design protocol:
1. Nothing is forgotten, just omitted or overlooked. Searching for missed stories is not only a better way to understand culture at its base, but also transformative on a personal basis.
2. Every community has a specific history which is always vulnerable to being misrepresented, appropriated and romanticized. It is important to resist this urge, as it usually simplifies the complex relationships that are manifested through the architecture that this community interacts with.
3. Our bias is inevitable and the most we can do is recognize its presence and never give up the process of confronting it.
4. The process of mourning and honoring past lives is as important as the intention of creating something new for new lives. The relationship that future and past has with each other is not always clear, and being aware of this ambiguity can lead to a better understanding of the passing of time.
5. The way in which institutions manipulate history to make room for themselves in the world can be questioned through architectural practice.
This protocol ultimately shows that we are eager to learn and ready to contest ourrole as future architects.
