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OMNISPHERE : remedy for the broken human heart

Part 2 Project 2012
Madhusha Wijesiri
University of Plymouth | UK

In the beginning of the world, we all were part of nature; there was no distinction between human and nature, but human was nature. Then came the machine, which turned human hearts into machines forcing the human to detach itself from nature and desiring to rule over it, painting a glowing-silicon-flawless picture in-front of human eyes, which with our weak hearts we embraced. Raise your heads a bit more, get on to your tip toes and look beyond the painted picture; can we still be proud of what we have achieved?

The project OMNISPHERE is seeking possibilities to re-establish the broken links between Human and Nature; with the use of what was invented by humans, destroying nature. Continuing in to architectural praxis, it questions, “ Could Architecture and Technology play an essential role in creating a post-crisis and sustainable city?” Basing itself on the ‘Cradle to cradle’ concept and rooted in circular-economic thinking, this project explores the idea of a building as an Ecological-Machine or an ECOmechanicalSYSTEM, anti-parasite, up-cycling of waste and by-products of other buildings. With technological explorations, the project smoothly oscillates between scale of a city and a 1:1 details putting forward a hypothesis of techno-organic development of the future city and plays with its consequences. Starting with the concept of Catholic Church being the main actor in post-crisis development of Zielona Gora (taking into consideration the existing very strong position of the Catholic Church in Poland), it fundamentally questions the relationships between the human being and technology. Avoiding reactionary, post-Heideggerian, anti-technological positions, OMNISPHERE strongly advocates new progressive synthesis between technology and humans as spiritual beings.

Technology is nothing to be afraid of, but what it does to human hearts is what is to be scared of. Running away from it is not the solution, but to struggle with it and find answers within it. OMNISPHERE investigates the architectural aspect of this imbalance, leaving an open end for every discipline to join in to make it stronger.

Madhusha Wijesiri

Tutor(s)

2012
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