The Last Hoo-rah

For our final Arch 199 project, we designed the city of Octavia, a fictional place imagined by Italo Calvino in his text Invisible Cities. This city is described as “the spider-web city” and is held up solely by ropes and chains between two mountains. All buildings hang below the support system. Those who live in Octavia cannot be certain of their fate from day to day because, as Calvino points out, “they know the net will only last so long” (Calvino, 75). We took these ideas and transformed the fictional place into a real structure with a twist: the whole thing was made out of candy. (Margaret)

Using Lifesavers, Twizzlers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Starburst, Gummy Bears, dental floss, Hershey’s Kisses, and some rope, we created Octavia on a scale that spanned the size of a room. Below our city, marshmallow clouds rested upon a bedsheet that represented the void into which the city would inevitably fall. There were three main support ropes, with floss, Twizzlers, and Fruit Roll-Ups creating the rest of the spider web. Everything else hung from these supports, with nothing rising up. (Samantha)

Our construction of our masterpiece was most definitely on the fly, but it turned out much better than we initially thought. Our original idea was to have a dozen or so skewers with a pineapple on each side with some fruit on the skewers and some rock candy hanging as well; we were quickly told that this was too small scale and we had to shoot for the stars! When we finally secured our exhibition locale, the famous “Eagle’s Nest” room in Temple Hoyne Buell Hall, we really took a big step forward. We constructed the city in phases and different waves of volunteers. The structure went up Sunday, the houses and city elements early Monday, the clouds below on Monday night, and the great finishing touches before the unveiling on Tuesday. (Patrick)

With candy, we tried to recreate a lot of the elements from the description, keeping the principle that everything ‘hung below’ instead of rising. So our city, concentrated at the centre with clusters of ‘ground-scrapers and houses’ hung below. We also included elements such as people who inhabited the city. Ultimately ,we were able to create an edible model of a city that the inhabitants know will last so long, by making it out of substances that we wanted our audience to interact with and tear down. (Rajasi )

This project provided an interesting experience, particularly with our choice of city, as it required us to pour all the knowledge we had accumulated over the course of the semester into a delicious model.  I’ll be the first to admit that I swiped a few starbursts and hershey kisses during the construction phase, but it was, nonetheless, an engaging project to have to assemble a city based solely upon a one page description provided by Italo Calvino.  Some features were deliberate and some features were unintended, but in the end I think we did a bang up job assembling Octavia for the class, not to mention it was incredibly delicious.  (Charles)

Creating an edible model of Octavia definitely turned out tougher in the end that I originally thought it would be. What seemed to be a simple design in the beginning led to multiple iterations before we could finally put all the pieces together. Although we wanted to make the model completely edible, we found that that would be next to impossible on the scale we were given, spanning the Eagle’s Nest. We needed to include a few non edible supports that would help steady the project until the Giants came and tore down the city. As we could see first hand, no one was ever sure when the city would be no more. (Cody)

Smalltown USA

        Today we toured a town that reminded me a whole lot of my hometown. While I grew up in a town about 3 or 4 times the size of Philo, a lot of similarities arise between all of the farming communities of Illinois. To begin with, we met the people who didn't ride the bus at Casey's General Store. Yes, we have on of those in Fairfield, and it happens to be located in the same relative location: on the main road into town, just past city limits. Professor Hinders explained that Casey's market is all the small farming communities across the mid-west as they act as a small town Wal-Mart.

         Then we took about a 10 minute drive around the community. Of course, it is located at the cross section of a highway and railroad track, offering multiple means to transport crops to market. The main drag consists of everything a town needs: Library, Bank, Post Office, Water Tower, and Tavern. As we went deeper into the community we were able to see very different types of homes, and even a subdivision in such a small town. I am still able to relate everything I have mentioned to my hometown, and I probably will be able to for the entirety of this post, but I won't bore you with that information. 

        We also discussed the presence of the different churches and how they are representative of the culture in Philo. There is a Catholic Church and Grade School in the center of Philo. Philo's population is said to be 50% Catholic, so it makes sense for both of these to be present. The explanation for the dense Catholic Population could stem from the German settlement in Philo. There are two other churches in Philo. It seems to be to be the trend for each small farming community to have 1 church for about every 500 residents. My hometown's populations is about 5,500, and I am sure we have 11 churches within the city limits.

        We ended the day at the Philo Tavern with some very tasty appetizers that were very generously paid for by Professor Hinders. All in all, we had a good day when we traveled to the Center of the Universe.

EB and KAM

            Today we went on a "student led" tour that took us through the Education Building and the Krannert Art Museum. We started at the Education Building, and at first glance, you can see that the building represents a temple. In the original plans, there was to be a sister building built where THBH currently resides. The space between the two buildings was going to be an open area that implied conversation between the two buildings. This idea mimics the UGL because it consists of two temples that frame a void in the middle. However, those plans fell through and we are stuck with what we have now. The entrance to the Education Building is perfectly framed by the void between the Architecture Building and Wohlers Hall. As we approach the door, we see that the distinction between inside and outside is blurred by the floor mimicing the steps. The size of the gravel in the cement on the stairs slowly decreases until it becomes the floor of the building. One interesting aspect of the building is how the symmetric look on the outside doesn't correspond to the layout of the building. For example, even though there are two doors on the front entrance. There is only a main hallway on one side. The other main hallway terminates on the first floor, but reappears on the second floor. Another really cool aspect to the building is the offices on the third floor. We were able to go out on a rather interesting balcony and look over the edge to see that the bottom floor sticks out past the first floor. We also saw where the wooden slats that are part of the ceiling stick out past the window and acquire water damage.
              Our next stop was at the Krannert Art Museum. I had never been in the museum before today, so I was excited to see what was inside. Before we went in, Professor Hinders pointed out that the museum was pregnant with art, as the design of the building indicated. Once inside, I realized just how much I don't understand art. I will say that the rope jungle and the burnt popcorn where my two favorite pieces, although I'm not really sure what either represent.