HELD BY THE MOUNTAINS
Commoning through water, refuge and repair in Sierra Norte de Madrid
N.M. Karsten (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
A.S. Alkan – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
R. Cavallo – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
H.F. Eckardt – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
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Abstract
Held by the Mountains is an investigation of the responsibility architecture can take in fragile mountain territories. Starting with the premise that architecture can operate as a commoner of relationships between human, non-human life, and institutional actors in Alpine territories. The project is set within Sierra Norte de Madrid, recognizing that architecture does not simply solve complex environmental fragilities, but can take responsibility for performance within it. Performance in this project is evaluated in the context of a thousand-year horizon, mapping phases and potentials in a post-human future. This thesis investigates inhabitation as a mechanism for common knowledge and refuge as a commoner by re-imagining relationships between human and non-human participants to inform practices, morphologies, tectonics and construction logic. Positioning architecture as a reparative practice, a shared infrastructure through which environmental dependency becomes measured, experienced, and held over time.