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Gepetto

Part 2 Project 2011
Oliver Booth
Victoria University of Wellington | New Zealand
Gepetto Duke was a lonely soul. He spent his days mending clouds and playing violin to the trees that were only stumps. He is the guardian of Godrick, a land many oceans and breaths away. Gepetto spends his days tuning cogs within the earths crust and fluffing the clouds that have run out of puff. He spent a lot of time tinkering his home and always thought that the building itself should be a work of art. When banished from lands afar, Gepetto travels to our world. Gradually he makes his way to the Tip-Toe stairs, left to him by the Hermit of Houghton Bay. This is where his story begins.

The design builds from the narrative of Gepetto, the chapters create a guide to design from. As the building is slowly constructed, we see glimpses of his presence we often hear his voice as he bellows stories and tales of our past and his. He constructs this space upon the remnants of the Tip-Toe stairs. I create a gallery from this platform. He collects remnants of the past from adventures and experience and constructs them back together as a means to teach us. I collect these stories structuring them, constructing them and I piece them together to create architectural snippets and insights that are to be read as moments but can be also read as a whole. His story is the framework for the gallery and the rules for construction that are manifest in the space, how the space looks and how the space feels. Through my interpretation of the text, my experimentation, I bring an architectural story together; there are many voices here, my interpretation of the brief for a gallery, the architectural elements for the brief, how it is to be read and how it is to feel, but always Gepetto is here telling stories. This is a project that is not to be read as a single narrative but is built upon many layers and tales. The story of the building depends, as a text, on how it is read – it is open to interpretation.

Oliver Booth

Tutor(s)

2011
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