Machine Landscape takes the form of a technological center, focusing on the use of drones and topographical data gathering and analysis. Topographical and formal moves are determined by revolutionary, intersectional, site-wide subtractions and additions, originating from primary nodes of site relevance. Overlapping organic and metallic textures between roofscapes and groundscapes materialize efforts for blending between drone and automation with human involvement and the existing natural.
Castiglione d'Orcia, with its pastoral countryside and agricultural exports of olives and wines, suffers from worsening effects of climate change. With this in mind, introducing the possibilities of 5G technology, infrastructure, and automation aims to aid the preservation and health of the borgo’s agriculture.
In layering materialities and site strategies, the new topography and structures integrate the mechanical and pre-existing natural through diffusions of numerous textures and materials.
Programmatic visual presentation and learning embeds into structural circulation to site pathways, displaying drone logistics, technology, infrastructure, products of the groves, and differing representations of the Tuscan countryside. Machine Landscape is therefore an architectural response to mediate the foreign introduction of drones and 5G infrastructure for the benefit of the borgo's health and longevity.
Four secondary structures help facilitate primarily drone programs, here visualizing the necessary support, such as charging stations and data storage. These central drone nodes utilize the same facade strategy as the primary structure: striational openings creating ambiquity of program while providing pogrammatically effective natural lighting.
The project therefore aims to revitalize Castiglione d’Orcia through agricultural surveillance, analysis, and automation to help maintain its resources. The nature of the borgo, and additionally the image of landscape, is reimagined as an integration of contemporary technologies and the organic condition to achieve agricultural preservation and a greater understanding of the territory and resources. Climate change poses a multi-institutional and global imminent danger, and as such, Machine Landscapes begins to propose an architectural response for the benefit and health of the borgo and the people that live in and support it.
For architectural references and chosen precedents aiding in the design process, please view and investigate these examples. In Order of Appearance: Topography Studies // Facade Studies // Site Strategy Studies
