Inside Physical and Phenomenal Places of Scale - Life on the Terminal Moraine

Life on the terminal moraine is a study in the theory of place, presented conceptually in a planning and design studio and translated to a project. This site reveals a human perception of ecological and social systems evolving inside physical and phenomenal places of scale. This is a study in the relationship of landscape process and change and the cultural connection to a place known for its unique bio-physical condition and socio-cultural attachments over time.

Life on the Terminal Moraine brings an understanding of a place and an entrance into a landscape of multi-cultural layering attached to geological time. The terminal moraine is at the interface of two landforms separated by a river. The contrasting adjacent landforms range in age from 14,000 to over 600,000 years..

Formed by the Des Moines Lobe of the Wisconsinin Glacier the physical landform is a template for land covers attracting past cultures and creating places for future ones. We observe and interpret the layers, one on top of another and find ways to dwell, to take measures, and to sustain the very relationship in the place we choose to live.

Method

The method for this project is an approach to design theory studying the question of where we dwell in relationship to a feature or element, a luminous body, in a specific landscape. The Life on the Terminal Moraine studio asks several questions.

What attracts us to a site in a place?
What has attracted cultures over time to install in this place? How has the land and its social attachments changed?
Where do we dwell within these relationships of physical elements and social phenomena?
How do we dwell in a place without destroying the very relationship we desire?
How do we find our relationship to the feature?
How do we take measures inside and outside of the grid?

Questions concerning dwellings are approached by applying design concepts through the use of the question of the wall in the architecture of Mies Van Der Rohe and about housing in a very fragile place.

Archaeological sites identify particular areas of habitation and informs us of what humans have been attracted to over time.

Findings and Design Solution

Today our personal relationships to landforms are similar except the installation of dwellings is informed by the grid, conforms to the grid, and yet responds in some ways to other physical and phenomenal relationships. Relationships we want to measure.

An instrument, as an earthwork has been built to transcend the grid and to take measures of seasonal change and landscape relationships. The instrument uses the grid but responds phenomenally often contradicting the grid.

Conclusion

Life on the terminal moraine is dwelling in a dynamic place where identity and drama are created by past and future socio-cultural relationships to physical and phenomenal landscapes at many scales.