Machinic Desert: Architecture in the Age of the Anthropocene

The studio topic is to design a large solar-energy facility in the desert near Las Vegas, Nevada. The exact location and scale of the project were determined by the students via aerial photographs and Google Earth. The arid regions in Nevada, California, and Arizona have been increasingly populated with solar and wind farms that take advantage of the abundant space and extreme weather conditions of the desert. While the students learned about current solar technologies, the project’s focus was not on environmental engineering or technological innovation. Rather, the projects explore the capacity of large-scale nature/infrastructure hybrids to produce new forms of architecture and desert habitats.

The design for the solar-energy facility features two main components. The first one focuses on incorporating geological, ecological, atmospheric, and architectural elements into new hybrids and the second one explores the aesthetic qualities of these collaborative constructs and seeks to develop new and adequate ways of representing them.