Rock House

On the journey from Nasik to Pune in India, we were captivated by the rocky, volcanic cliffs present across the landscape. Most of all, what grabbed our attention were the great number of black volcanic rocks that seemed to cover and govern the land. In their status quo they seemed to be telling us a story, a tale of their journey from the earth's core, to the surface cliffs, to the gentle slopes below. Having released their store of energy, they had come to settle and rest at the point of equilibium between mass, inertia, and slope.

The objective of the rock house is to design a house for the rock, a point of rest from which the rock can recover from its journey and prepare to continue.

Our initial instinct was to lift the rock and suspend it above the land, hovering. This led to the first rock house, suspended in mid-air, tied to four posts. The tension between the rock and the land led to a further development of the rock house. We realized that the suspension of the rock is momentary, the rock house in time will fall apart. The act of lifting resurrects the rock, replenishes it by giving it a new inertia to fall and continue its journey down the slope.

In our minds, this described the nomadic lifestyle of the rock. We designed several rock houses. Each rock house explores differenct aspects of a rock and is designed to withstand the movement of the land and the winds for specific time frames. Some are meant to survive one month, others five, ten years.

The following pages contain models of some of the rock houses.

Hammock, spider, sister, web, haystack, matted, wheel, temple, shelter, crawl, and nest.