AKI ISHIDA

How can the path be the architecture, not simply points A and B. How can architecture be a journey, a place to lose track of time? How can this journey pull apart our surroundings, carefully reconstructing these fragments as we move through spaces?

This thesis is a study of path. The path creates the framework for what we see, experience, and uncover. The site, a cluster of islands in the James River, allows the sequence of arrival to be thoroughly constructed. Traveling from downtown Lynchburg, a boxcar frames scenes before the visitor, with speed quickly revealing and concealing the woods, rivers, and pieces of the architectural intervention. An artist residency is spread amongst the site, with the path being the thread typing together these elements. The result is an architectural proposition that reveals itself slowly, one that uses curiosity as a driver for movement to discover architecture.  

- Nicholas Coates