Quarry Habitation
Fall 2013, senior design studio
Individual habitation in Stony Creek Quarry, Guilford, CT
Exploring the relationship between the intimate and the immense, this individual-occupant structure exposes inhabitants to the perilous heights presented by the quarry, while enveloping them in the pockets of the structures soft internal membrane. Hanging suspended from the cliff face, the habitation utilizes a slat-and-rope construction method to provide simultaneous sensations of vertigo and enclosure.
Process
After visiting and selecting a suitable site in the quarry, I outlined the first-person experience of descending into and emerging from the habitation. I began to develop models of the habitation's internal structure and its attachment to the cliff-face, developing conceptual and drafted sketches concurrently. The final iteration is built at 1' : 0.5" scale, and attached to a scale site model of the surrounding cliffs.
In the final design, occupants descend from the top of the quarry into the habitation, crawling through a series of confined, though exposed, spaces to reach the entirely exposed viewing platform at the habitation’s base. The rope canopy-membrane would also serve as scaffolding for indigenous plants and mosses, which would colonize the structure over time.
