kuniyoshi

This is an architectural fairy tale:

A tale of two cities is a book I read when I was a kid; it moved me, it gave me a reality check at a very young age. This could be a tale of two villages or maybe a story about a ghost village.
· The village is along one of the silk routes
· This Silk route is at the base of the Himalaya mountains
· Seasonal landslides and patterns getting more frequent due to deforestation and shifting tectonic plates.
· A restless landscape. Land not suitable for living during 6 months of the year.
· Due to landslides dwellings are destroyed every year and rebuilt thus they appear like temporary structures.
· People do not relocate because of their farm lands and their history. These villagers are descendants of travelling monks on the silk route and settling down in this part of the silk route with in the Himalayas.
· Culturally rich and weave silk and wool till date. Very artistic, very local, very remote.

Yin yang:

definition in the dictionary:
Noun; (In Chinese philosophy and religion) two principles, one negative, dark, and feminine (yin), and one positive, bright, and masculine (yang), whose interaction influences the destinies of creatures and things.

In the Chinese philosophy, the concept of yin yang is used to describe how seemingly separate, opposing forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world. This concept forms the basis of classical Chinese science, philosophy and medicine.
· Yin literally means a “shady place” or the “north slope.” It is associated with night, black, negative, valleys, rivers, streams, water, metal, etc.
· Yang literally means “sunny place” or the “south slope.” It is associated with white, male, active, dominating, positive, initiating- triggering/creating, etc.
· Natural dualities are referred to as yin yang in Chinese philosophy.
· Ying yang are complimentary opposites with in the greater whole.
· Yin yang arise together from initial emptiness ( “wuji”- symbolized by an empty circle)
· Yin yang describes opposing qualities in phenomenon. E.g. winter (yin) & summer (yang), femininity (yin) & masculinity (yang)

Yin yang are rooted together. Since yin yang are created together, they are bound together as parts of the mutual whole. Interaction of the two gives birth to things.
· Yin yang are balanced and in a dynamic equilibrium.
· Yin yang is not an actual substance or material; it is rather a universal way of describing the interaction and inter-relation of natural forces that exist in the world.

In this project the existing village/dwellings on land along the silk route are referred to as yang and the ghost village on the channels is referred to as yin. As yang is partially or completely destroyed by the landslide yin adds another layer to its architectural flesh. This new layer of architectural flesh seems to be the negative space or the destroyed portion of yang.

Brief explanation:

Each existing dwelling (yang) along the silk route is connected to one vessel (yin) in the ghost village (on the water channels). Every time a landslide hits the dwelling, the data of the damaged portion is sent to the vessel. There the damaged area (negative space of the effected dwelling) is rapid prototyped and casted using the metal alloys from the channel making system. The vessel will have identical plan (with no walls. Set of dogville the movie was interesting and relevant to this part of the project) to the existing dwelling to start with but these moulds of negative spaces will be added to it layer upon layer constructing the architectural flesh on the vessel (yin).
The vessel also has a propeller system which is triggered by the landslide on the parent dwelling. This propeller system will abruptly propel the vessel away from its current position in the direction away from the landslide. The position of the vessel at any point in time, will be dependent on two things
1. The steering of the vessel(yin) by the inhabitant
2. The propelling system which is triggered and guided by the landslide on the parent dwelling (yang).

Over time these vessels act like new species of organisms introduced into the landscape. Their grazing catchments are the water channels. They grow over time with each additional layer of architectural flesh. The architectural flesh is made using by products from the channel making system. And its form is a result of archiving the landslides & negative space of effected parent dwelling.

This will lead to the emergence of two villages in the shadow of each other one being the existing village and the second being the ghost village.
· In the landslide season people shift from their existing homes (yang) to the vessels (since we have established that there is a pattern and season for the landslides, landslide season is from march to august- 6 months)

As the population increases and channels are made. The people can continue using the same system to create water channels because of the following driving forces:
· Increased population requires more vessels resulting to further requirements for new channels for the ghost village (yin).
· The channel making system results in the extraction of copper, calcium & zinc. Which will add to their local economy and the funds can even be used for the repairs of existing dwellings and maintenance of the system.