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Split/View

Location
Tulsa, Oklahoma

Date 2006

Description
Split/View is intended to play upon the interactive dynamics of two distinct aspects of architecture: geometric form and perceptual experience. When closed and seen from the outside, the structure appears as a reduced and rational geometric form, composed of simple 8-by-8-foot modules. When open, its geometry is occluded by the irregular sloping roof, protruding end-apertures, and the changing spatial dynamics of the sliding wedges along the obliquely fixed central frame. By running two contradictory models of order - visual and conceptual against one another, the structure frames the schism between the way things appear visually and the way we know them to be intellectually. As the structure requires human interaction to shift between its two primary positions, closed and operational, it oscillates not only between being fully opened and fully closed, but also between its twin roles as an icon of seeing as well as an instrument for it.