A DESERT RESORT FROM DIGITAL DETAIL
Studio Spring 2022
Lake Powell, Arizona, USA
Collaboration with Ashley Jin
Professor Andrew Saunders
Director Ali Rahim
Inspired by the work of land artist Michael Heiser, the project focuses on how to integrate an artistic relief into the desert sandstone surrounding Lake Powell, a body of water off of the Colorado River which services recreation and power to the Grand Canyon and Glen Canyon areas. One of the main tasks of the project was to defamiliarize a desert material for new architectural treatment which would heighten moments of the designed relief. Turquoise, a sacred mineral denoting luck and fortune for the indigenous Navajo people, is deposited only in copper dense desert terrain and is an iconic feature of the American Southwest. The representation of the turquoise rejects the traditional cluster formation of the mineral and becomes glaze-like, in order to denote hierarchies of program and meld the borders between the red sandstone of the desert and the bleached white stone of the waterline. The project attempts to confuse the boundaries of architecture and landscape as views are framed and programs are distinguished by the cut forms in the ground. The resort functions as a hostel offering a variety of units types and spaces intended for communal retreat. Recreational activities provided by the rocky site and lake offer affordable alternatives to the luxury resorts in the surrounding area. The unique program of a hostel provided opportunities to design spaces of intimacy and connection articulated through furniture and carvings derived from the Convolutional Neural Network images.
Chunk Render of the lobby, pools and surrounding units in the upper left of the site.
Convolutional Nueral Network images generate to create theshapes and operational logic for the reliefs.
Convolutional Nueral Network images generate to create theshapes and operational logic for the reliefs.
18” x 24” 3D printed relief model with acrylic drip glazing applied by hand.
The rocks and landscape for the desert imagery were made possible by detailed survey via drone footage: each team was provided the opportunity to choose a site for piloting the drone in order to scan and photograph for photogrammetric models and render images. Rigorous trials and understanding of editing meshes was required to combine photogrammetry models and online survey material for realistic representation of the site.
Lake Powell, Page, Arizona.
February, 2022.