First Year Studio - AAP Cornell

WOLVERINE FROG PAVILION

An architecture study derived from operational systems of an “unfamiliar” creature, diagraming animal instinct, movement, and structure

De[monstra]tive is the first studio in the B.Arch program at Cornell AAP. It is designed to challenge preconceived perceptions of architecture, ultimately leading to an understanding that architecture is simultaneously and paradoxically evolving. The design problem began with analysis and meticulous documentation of operational bodies derived from exotic creatures.

My assigned creature was the trichobatrachus robustus, (known as the Wolverine Frog) a rare species of pond frog that deliberately snaps its leg bones in stressed or dangerous situations so that the sharp broken bones can act as weaponized claws. These claws can then act as defensive feature or used as a strong gripping apparatus. The internal becomes the external, through a choreographed transformation in muscles and skeletal structure. The result is a series of instinctual and painful responses to danger and survival.