“Fantastic Beasts + Chrono-Hybrid Feasts”

In the 21 c we’re witnessing the formation of new wildernesses—cross-bred worlds that are generating the emergence of fertile educational and spatial frontiers. Leveraging chrono-hybrids—spatial species that can change, over and through time, we traded on the production and consumption of food— let’s say designing something akin to a speculative/ synthetic agriculture’ish/ farm’ish and a culinary institute’ish/ ‘restaurant’ish’. Etymologically, wilderness is linked to a wild, uninhabited, or uncultivated place. And frontiers are the political and geographical areas near or beyond a boundary. In the studio we assumed that wildernesses and frontiers are fertile and feral—lush, invigorated, and untamed. We encountered them literally, metaphorically, and operationally, developing contemporary wagon trains, invented navigational gear, survival provisions and launched horizons. Coupled with the exploratory potential of wildernesses and frontiers, chrono-hybrids challenged the dominance of static, ‘forever’ architecture and the default implementation of typologies, programmatically and educationally. We targeted hybrid spatial formations that were dexterous, dynamic, and temporally adept—spatial realms, devices, entourage-like elements, and material states that were capable of choreographing nuanced, or even sudden spatial and programmatic emphases. These chrono-hybrids might adapt to, transform, and motivate environments— spatial species that were durationally sensitive, responsive, and transmissible.

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