Hermit House

black and white headshot of a man with dark hair and glasses wearing a jacket with buildings behind him
  • Justin Foo, B.Arch. 2018
  • Hometown

    Singapore, Singapore
  • Class

    ARCH 1101 Design I (first-year studio)
  • Instructor

    Associate Professor Val Warke
    Visiting Associate Professor Jim Williamson

The process of defamiliarization started with Justin Foo's assigned animal, the mimic octopus. He is interested in its transformative abilities. The mimic octopus first became an animated inflatable installation before evolving into an apparatus which was worn by the model. This animal prosthetic was an aluminum dress, which investigated the changes in volume while generating a graphic record of its motion Foo pursued the process of defamiliarization by superimposing the interlocking structure of the apparatus over the drawing that it generated. The construction lines of the new landscape were intersected to form more nuanced spaces for living. The final model of a hermit's house continued to develop his interest in the animal’s transformative abilities, its strategy of camouflage as well as the operation of weaving. Tentacles of metal dug through the earth in a subtractive process, forming tunnels, walls and voids for habitation.

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