LIFESPAN by mhettler
Completed / Public / University of Michigan / Architecture
This project, a proposed renovation of Chicago’s Union Station, attempts to create an awareness that the infrastructures in which most architectures operate are on a scale much smaller than the forces they inevitably seek to control: culture, transportation, time, and most importantly, nature. Contrary to Chicago’s defining paragon of man’s triumph over nature, the skyscraper, this project seeks an allowance of architecture’s return to the ground. Rather than controlling the natural elements, it attempts a coexistence, a symbiosis. It allows and even celebrates its decay and eventual end of its current form. A bronze mesh allows for decay of material elements while also providing for growth of natural ones. As the office tower and great hall decay over many years, the space is enriched by its disrepair, rather than impeded by it.
Design by Andrew McGee, Rachel Villalta, and Matt Hettler for Chicago's Burnham Competition.
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