The "Bioscleve House (Lifespan Extending Villa)" in East Hampton, NY expounds artist-poet-painter-philosopher-architect couple Madeline Gins and Arakawa's faith in the life-prolonging potential of architecture. Supported by the title of their most recent book, Making Dying Illegal, they promote environments that force occupants to rethink how they move through the day (locomotively, in this case) in order to stay alert, attentive, and thusly further from that ultimate act of complacency: death. "Comfort, the thinking goes, is a precursor to death; the house is meant to lead its users into a perpetually 'tentative' relationship with their surroundings, and thereby keep them young" (NY Times article). Implied by its undulating and rippled floor (rammed earth + concrete) generously populated by fluorescent-colored support poles, the space challenges the user's grasp on bodily orientation and movement, requiring constant adaptation to its changing contours and textures and the occasional catching and/or righting of oneself whenever maneuveral obstacles prevail.
The couple, described by a contractor as having "the enthusiasm of 10-year-olds at a birthday party," will lead a conference this weekend in Philadelphia called "Reversible Destiny: Declaration of the Right Not to Die."
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