Terra Firma

Terra Firma is a project recently completed in collaboration with Takuma Kakehi as a proposal for the Banaue Rice terraces in the Philippines. Acting as an environmental mediator for the fields dual function as an active agricultural region and World Heritage site with a large scale economy of Tourism, Terra Firma proposes a minimal body of architecture densly loaded with programmatic responses to the growing functional needs of the site. Repetition of simple components constructed dominantly from native matallows for rapid redistribution of the structural system. By condensing the program of grain harvesting and storage into a self sustaining structure a framework upon which a system of panels with the capability to serve as both solar array and tourist viewing platform allows for minimal interference with the terrain of the site. While condensing the surface area required for both economic programs what is provided is a field upon which secondary programs, Worker Housing, Jatropha Curcas biofuel oil planting, etc. can propagate synthetically with the existing economic typologies of the site. This provides a system capable of either response to economic needs in the form of sprawl or isolated function without the necessity to diversify the basic architectural components, creating an architectural body which enhances the function driven attraction of the site while maintaining its economic viability.
Link to Project