2007. biofuel gaz station
professors: manon asselin, katsuhiro yamazaki
with elizabeth paden
the landscape of the site is factitious. artificial. simulated. bogus
what engages the visitor to the site is not what is there, but what is not. the fascination is with the unseen and inaccessible. grass and soil are simply components of the membrane protecting the reservoir beneath; the traffic that encircles, along with the steep cliffs further this impermeability. this layered covering exists as a sanitary intervention, employing an imitation of reality to conceal what is beneath. rubber has been chosen as an exploitative material magnification of the site, for its ability to hold and contain. when used as a membrane, the contents determine form - it is stretched into a shape evocative of what lies within and beyond. similarly, the reservoir has been wrapped by envelope, but traces of its original form remain. the force of retention, impalpable when outside the envelope of the reservoir, will be actualized through the materiality of rubber, utilized as an air supported structure sited to strategically imitate the pressure of a contained fluid.
