Project Team: Robert Hutchison, Scott Claassen, Siyu Qu, Wenjing Zhang, Sean Morgan
Rendering by Tristan Walker
Location: Wye River, Wye Mills MD
Project in design
One of the nine projects that make up the Memory Houses.
The Light House is a Memorial. Its asymmetrical shape and perforated cladding allude to a body draped by fabric. The interior is a single space, circulation is continuous from bottom to top to bottom … one experience, looped. The building is akin to an inverted Pozzo di San Patrizio.
The siding is perforated corrugated zinc panels similar to those found on grain elevators and other agricultural structures in the area. The zinc serves as a sacrificial anode to prevent the steel structure from rusting. In the course of a few years, the panels have corroded so much that they require replacement. The resulting quality of light inside the tower changes over time as well.
Sources:
Chesapeake Bay Screwpile Lighthouse + Metal Grain Silo + Trajan’s Column,
with Plan geometry of Borromini’s San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane and double helix circulation of St Patrick’s Well in Orvieto.
