Montage

In this montage, the complementing collages depict two semi-dystopic futures where the relationship between the natural and built environment is explored. Inspired by SuperStudio’s idea of anti-architecture and their ‘Continuous Monument’ alongside an almost anti-Archigram commentary, both images show pristine, untouched landscapes marred by the stains of urban development through the play of colour and black-and-white photography. In the first image, named ‘Black-Stain,’ the once-unspoiled landscape of the Valles Calchaquies is marred by the black stains of industrial development and monolithic concrete towers that mirror the sky-scraping Andes Mountains in the distance. The contrast of the once vibrant, now almost unsaturated landscape and the black and white overlays of the dark towers and metropolitan ground is meant to be jarring and symbolise how these towers are unwelcome in the landscape, and further show the alien nature of the towers in the surrounding environment. The second image shows a somewhat less jarring monumental tropical modernist structure that extends in the horizontal plane, mirroring the vast flatness of the landscape it is perched on. Raised above the horizon on pilotis, the structures sit high above the watery and easily flooded river of grass and show a more sustainable urban building typology while still marring the everglades' once-pristine landscape in all its black and white glory.