Materials and Imagination: A Building of Fire and Water

Abstract

An exploration of the relationship between man and the elements, fire and water, this project further develops these ideas by way of the imagination. Man's attempt to form further connections with these elements is often seen as an act of humanization. It is, however, these investigations that allow for such intimate relationships between humans and elements.

This project is a fire station that demonstrates the impact fire and water has on man as well as the impact man has on fire and water. Whether the gentle flame of a candle or the ferocious explosions of a volcano, the clear flowing stream or the passionate throes of the ocean, man finds both companionship and challenge in the elements. Man's manipulation of both fire and water enable materials to extend the limit of their properties. It is this control over elements that enables architecture.