D'Oria / Archrypt

Archrypt The Time-capsule as a Design-driven Method

Authors: Mariacristina D'Oria, University of Trieste; Gianluca Croce, University of Trieste; Valentina Rodani, University of Trieste

Supervisors: Giovanni Corbellini, Professor, Politecnico di Torino

Research stage: Research project developed connecting our individual PhD research trajectories.

Category: Artefact

DDR Statement

The project experiments with the time-capsule as a design-driven method. Taking up the idea developed in the forties by Thornwell Jacobs on the “Crypt of Civilisation” as a repository of knowledge for the humanity of tomorrow, our hypothesis imagines the transmission of an operational kit for spatial issues of the future society.

If Jacobs proposes a cultural repository, our project, by adopting his method strictly, investigates and explores different levels of the archiving process, questioning three fundamental issues, addressing theoretical, design, and transmission problems.

First of all, our project investigates the relationship between the fluxus of the incessant architectural production and the stasis of the archive selection. Secondly, this process defines the archive structure, and then it reflects on the different transmission modalities of the collected knowledge to an uncertain future.

Jacobs’ method becomes thus the general framework on which a constant process of re-question and re-configuration develops. Furthermore, the progressive definition of the content, progressively incremented through the archiving process, influences the design of the container.

In the previous stages, we experimented with the time-capsule method facing two extreme situations: the definition of a decontextualized design, Archrypt, and the translation of it into a contextualized exhibition, Apocalipsis cum figuris.

Through this method, we explored the very meaning of the archive, interpreting it beyond its materiality as a static object, reflecting on it as a performative and interactive device.