tehnoülevaatus/
vehicle inspection
2023/24 sügissemestri projekt. trafaretseid rituaale uuriv ja semiootikaga mängiv arhitektuurne etüüd.
Sam Jacob’i stuudio Angewandte koolis.
asukoht: noorema kiviaja Vale Maria do Meio kromlehh. Portugal.
koostöös: John Clayson, Jonas Ramoser, Erfan Khosravi
2023/24 winter semester project. an architectural study of common rituals and its associated semiotics.
Sam Jacob Studio at Angewandte.
site: neolithic cromlech of Vale Maria Do Meio. Portugal.
in collaboration with: John Clayson, Jonas Ramoser, Erfan Khosravi
every year, people must take their car to a vehicle inspection point, ‘The MOT’, to ensure their car meets the legal standards. one can watch the test from a viewing area but they are not allowed to interrupt the tester, as they engage in a pragmatically choreographed procedure around the car.
cars often exist as a suburban architectural prosthetic, the MOT test providing a stamp of safety, and at times, prolonging a person's symbol of status.
the Vale Maria do Meio cromleque, a presumed neolithic stone circle, attributes symbolic importance to the east-west axes. this importance is created by the daily solar cycle and its analogous relationship with human birth and death.
‘the MOT’ interprets this linear analogy, orienting itself to create a circular method of renewal; the car is dropped off by its owner in the west, it travels circularly to the most easterly point where the MOT procedure takes place; and then back. whilst automotive renewal takes place, the human owner of the car waits patiently and prays (that they pass) in the central waiting area.
we interpreted the stones as a system, replacing all but 2 stones with artefacts integral to ‘the MOT’. ranging from structural elements, to waiting room objects, to signage, to floor finishes, to projected voids; a collaged mirage of the neolithic site can be observed in the intervention. the two remaining stones form the entrance, where the car is collected and dropped off, and contribute to the austere stereotyped facade inspired by the car garage typology.
like quartz crystals within a playfully banal MOT rock, the Haciendan tapestry of the waiting room floor amplify the experience of anticipation; yellow and black lines - you may stop but not park. in the chapel the tester engages in a strict dance with the car, the Palladian planned grid, a comment on the space's concern for order and precision. in the easterly portal, an object stands, piercing the chapel at every level, combining semiotic contribution to ritual with a functional tool of MOT renewal.
as cars dwindle from their position as the culmination of human innovation, and urban futures are defined by pedestrianization; an automotive swan song is heard in the bells of ‘the MOT’.
