Permanence : aligning architecture, nuclear waste, and the Public

Abstract

Permanence is intended as a provocation to question the current relationship of time and architecture. Architecture has always had a relationship with time, but historically this relationship has been troubled. In 2013 we as architects are currently operating under a false assumption that architecture should only be in a relationship with commodity. This is producing architecture with a very short shelf life, and the architecture is secondary to the commodity it houses. Contemporary architecture only lasts for thirty to one hundred and fifty years and is constrained by budget, the building industry and material warranties. Contemporary society is fast paced and rapidly changing. This rapid change has manifested itself in our architecture and our perception of scales of time. In the modern era, when something is considered permanent it only lasts roughly one hundred years. Our perception of time in the future and the past is small in the grand scheme of history. However, this has not always been the case. We have produced architecture that spanned millennia in the past and when we did we've produced great architecture. How is it that great architecture of the past was able to overcome budget, and dedicate itself to time? These great architectures all had great motivating factors that trumped budget, and were perceived as permanent. These motivating factors include; religion, body politic, or precious resources such as water. The societies that built the architecture though that their way of life, their government, etcetera, as permanent. This thesis states that it is possible to align architecture back with time when dedicated to a motivating factor without a limit of time. The thesis project aligns itself with nuclear waste. Nuclear energy will be necessary to serve the energy needs of a rapidly growing population, and as the technology becomes safer and more efficient it will be more prevalent in cities. The only problem with Nuclear energy is the waste. I'm proposing an architecture that aligns nuclear waste with the public through a public bath. Bathing is a tradition in most cultures that has lasted for thousands of years, and will continue in some way for thousands more. The time is 3013 and the site is an inundated Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has moved it's nuclear research facilities to an island just east of what was once Central Square, and the nuclear waste from the research is used to warm the waters of a public bath.