De-Center / Center for Decomposition

Princeton School of Architecture / Graduate Architecture Studio 501 / Fall 2021 / Mentor: Michael Meredith

A symbiotic community space for mycological hobbyists and experimental musicians. What happens if the intended inhabitants are non-human, anarchitectural, deconstructive? As spores slowly eat away at the columns in the courtyard, they implicate the structural elements of the human-inhabited spaces, which are made out of the same, standard-dimensioned, yellow tulip poplar. The occupant is drawn into the material precarity, drawing lines from the sunken, decaying center to the board-formed concrete and live trees on site (and in sight) beyond. The concrete husk will be left uninhabitable, carved out by unsteady temporal cycles, and appropriated as a site for regeneration. In reality, a glass curtain wall demarcates fungal territory from human, the precarity only an eerie reminder rather than an active threat.

Interior spaces are designed to delineate zones to be inhabited by the New Jersey Mycological Association, and those to be used by WPRB for live experimental music performances. Program elements for the former, mainly housed on the first floor, include a library, herbarium, modular classroom spaces, herbarium, test kitchen, demonstration kitchen, bathrooms, auditorium space, and access to the central courtyard for forays. Program elements for WPRB include storage spaces, bathrooms, media storage and library, loading dock, three recording booths, stage, and audience areas. The relative privacy and security of spaces for both groups are hinged around two pinch points on transverse corners of the courtyard, further articulated by a dual staircase. These points are able to be closed off as-needed, and allow for the space to be fully functional for different types of events, even those occurring simultaneously. Recent studies show the presence of music as increasing mushroom productivity up to 15%, meaning that this symbiosis between human occupants also extends to their traces in the space.

" But a mushroom grows for such a short time and if you happen to come across it when it’s fresh it’s like coming across a sound which also lives a short time. " - Cage