ARCHITECTS

“...to make love is to feel one’s body close in on oneself. It is finally to exist outside of any utopia... all the invisible parts of your body begin to exist... we love so much to make love, it is because, in love, the body is here.” - Michel Foucault

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I attempt to explore the difference between a self-conscious body and one that is self- aware. Taking from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s differentiation between self-love and a love of self, the asylum for corrupt politicians explores an architecture that could rehabilitate those who seek to acquire wealth and power. To address spatial awareness and self-awareness within this precinct, programmes responding to sex, pain and branding are considered. The goal is to create architecture that responds to and facilitates the development of a vulnerable body.

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The corrupt politicians are introduced to a hermetic lifestyle with a slight twist. They undergo rehabilitation through an acknowledgement of the body. Stripped of all their belongings, they move to their cells. The influence of the elements and control of space and time allow rituals to develop within the asylum. Based on these rituals, the prisoners ‘escape’ to a vast bathing area. Open to elements and potentially the public, a relationship between actor and spectator is established. The body is made self-conscious as they proceed to the sex chambers. Here the self-conscious body is taught to be self-aware, to be ‘here’ and to abandon superficial, material desires. Surrounding the asylum is the public realm that accommodates traditional healers, tattoo parlours and gardens. Here a reconnection with the body is to be introduced. With the recognition of one’s own body, one may then occupy the city.