Archive - Grotto

LANY / SOMA

VILLA DRAGON (FOR ADOLF LOOS) PRECIS In the project Death of the Post-Modern Villa (a.k.a. Villa Dragon), somber, brooding forms foreshadow the central metaphor of villa as dragon. A thunderbolt pierces the plate-like forms of the casino. Dragon’s blood flows into the curvilinear, naturalistic forms of the landscape forming a pool. At the opposite pole of the enclosed villa, a naïve house is ‘reborn’ in a small wood. At its foot is a small pool, deeply recessed, that recalls the subhuman qualities of the ‘vanquished’ dragon. "The simplest, most elementary mark, the cross, was interpreted by Mondrian in a mystical sense before Le Corbusier saw in it, minus by minus, the sign of positivity; this mark brings together the masculine and feminine elements in the coitus of vertical and horizontal." --Hubert Damisch, "Toward a Tomb for Adolf Loos", Grey Room 01 (Fall 2000) Villa Dragon (full dossier) Landscape Formalism, Anyone? (Anti-Journal) Linguistic Dust (Soma)

Landscape Agency New York - 2002/2004