Core77
Another fantastic project from Detroit: Catie Newell's Salvaged Landscape takes wood reclamation one step further, transforming burnt lumber from an arsoned house into a new spatial volume and material landscape. Supported by Detroit nonprofit The Imagination Station, Newell has been working hard since September to bring the project through its first phase, which opened last Saturday at 2230 14th Street, one of two uninhabitable buildings the nonprofit has endeavored to clean up. Catie gives an energetic tour to Stephen McGee below:
Demolition of this severely damaged house was imminent, but instead of a traditional tear-down, Newell removed the charred wood timbers from the frame of the house and stacked them on their sides to form an outside wall that extends to become a moody passageway inside. The surface highlights the unburnt insides of the timber in its cross section, exhibiting the contrast between the char of the surface and the warmth underneath.
Top: The inside of the passageway. Bottom: The house before Newell started work.
The next phase of Newell's demolition will involve removing the rest of the house, leaving the Salvaged Landscape standing alone. Then, the construction will be flipped onto its flat side to create a different kind of place, a monument to the original building with an inhabitable, enclosed space created by the passageway currently in place.
An excerpt from Catie's description of the work:
Irreversible, transformed, and impaired - the material and spatial qualities of a house are dramatically altered with the introduction of fire. Severely damaged and unsafe, the house at 2230 14th Street necessitated a deconstruction. Framed by the setting and pace of demolition, Salvaged Landscape appropriates the charred wood from an arsoned house to create spatial adjustments which uncover the material qualities reliant on flame to exist. Amidst a purposeful tear-down, the project responds to the new textures, spaces, and light effects that resulted both from the fire and demolition. Using existing material from the house as the palette and existing spaces as form-work, Salvaged Landscape creates a new room in the life of the house keying into the opportunities present in its own timeline; constructed with the demolition of the house occurring around it. As a study of materials and light, the work explores the raw and scorched depths of the wood while simultaneously providing the work and the house with light punctures and the explorations of spaces intentionally left dark.
Read more about the project, Catie and The Imagination Station here.
Lisa is dedicated to promoting the American contemporary design scene. She keeps herself busy as the co-founder of the Object Design League, an association of independent designers in Chicago, and design practice Smith&Linder, both co-founded with Caroline Linder. She also teaches foundation research studios at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Catie Newell's Salvaged Landscape Reclaims an Arsoned Building in Detroit
I can see this stage and appreciate that it is FINE art. Thanks Catie Newell, for creating this outstandingly beautiful work!
its another example of someone creative executing a great idea that cost nothing more than someone time. and if money is needed to do more of this please go to kickstarter.com and post your project and i will help fund you as i am sure others will too.
neep it up.
eric, i echo what louise said. i work on the imagination station project and live down the street. long way to go still, but since the summer the whole campus space with the 2 houses has been transformed from a jungle of junk into something clean, visitable, and positive. it's a good thing, and next up is more progress on the neighboring house which will be greenly rehabbed into a community media center. i hope you can make it by to check it out some time, or follow progress on the interwebs. peace.