YELLOW WATER, PURPLE SKY

> We studied architecture in some faculties all around the world.
For all of us the training system begins with mathematics, technical drawing physics and so on.
Later on we got into design classes, structures, materials and obviously you get also history classes.
in europe we start from greece, then roman architecture,
gothic,
renaissance,
mannerism,
neo-revivals,
and finally we get into modern.

> after some years,
we end up to believe that the architect is the guy who builds building

architect=builder

architect=builder
> We do not want to contradict this assumpt.
we agree with that,
To build it is a very exciting activity, something like making love.
you make your drawing,
you go to details,
then the building site starts, cranes arrive, big trucks,
and at the end your little stuff is done.
(superexciting moment)
> now,
we would like to talk about some other pleasures and desires.
when you look to the history of architecture (past & present)
everyone focuses on the final object.
very few people try to dig a little bit more, what`s behind.

> One thing that is very interesting and curious,
is that whenever you look to a good architect,
before to build the thing he likes so much,
he traveled a lot

corbusier,
wright,
venturi.

> first of all, they were all great travelers.
sketches,
pictures,
travel notes.

to travel = to know

to travel = to know

There is time to kill today, so let's say we start our trip from this assumpt.

> If we look round, we will find we are not alone in this journey
In the European culture this concept is carried on from classical world to middle age.
is the basic concept for Dante, as well as for Marco Polo.
A metaphor of life for the first, a way to improve the political power of
Venetian Republic, for the other.

> Traveling was a way to get lost, to
be shipwrecked for Leopardi. There is only one way to get to the infinity and it doesn't
go through rational method.
the only possible way has to be a poetic one,  you can reach the final truth
only through a lyrical operation
this 'purposeless' concept is the keyword that links later on different
people like Rimbaud, Baudelaire and Benjamin.

> it will become a mainstream in contemporary western culture.
on both sides of the atlantic ocean
american side, you get Hucleberry Finn, Kerouac and beat generation poets,
other side there is a wide range, from Conrad & Joyce all the way to french Situationists.

What kind of traveling/exploration are we thinking of?
That's the point.

> You can travel a lot and not to get to understand anything.
Other people, they stay all their life in their bedroom and make incredible trips.

> How can this be possible?
probably the important thing is not how far you go,
but what kind of glasses you wear when you go around, the conceptual instruments you use to look at the world.

> In our case, we thought that it could have been very interesting to explore the Chao Phya River. From Bangkok going north, toward the border with Laos.
We think that the Chao Phya River it will be an incredible setting for our explorations.

> it will provide us a lot of interesting materials.
Both physical and
conceptual matter.

> But, the real interesting thing it will be to see how different people will
look at the river.
To confrontate different system of intepretations,
different attitudes.

Some of us will be very careful about maps,
Some other will take pictures, or will shoot some film.
Maybe other people will try to understand things, through design activity.

> Our travel along the river could be thought as a serie of projects, small, reals, practical.

> Our project is to have a moving city made out of boats.
to leave Bangkok, following the Chao Phya, in the direction of Laos border.
Exploring the river.
Feeling it. Joy/Enjoy.

> Let`s say five to ten boats.
ten people per boat.
thai people, foreigners, architects but also artists, musicians, videomakers, performers....

> During the day the boats move along the river,
people get suntanned on the deck,
talk, take pictures, read a book & enjoy their time,
see in black and white, in slow motion, drown.

> As soon as the sun sets,
it will be time to approach a stop.
it might be a village, an open field,
some city in ruins.

> When the boats stop, then it is time to work.
every one, every group,  will be working on his project

transparent screens, silks, coloured tents, digging holes in the ground,
planting flowers, collecting butterflies, plastic boxes, mirrors, television skies

> Someone will build a disposable movie-theatre, with beautiful movies going all night long,
someone will build an  enclosed garden to leave it there as a mark of our passage,
someone else will cook special recipies,
moaning radios in the wood
switch on the light, switch off,
self-preservation, a flashback from wayback.

> Most of architects design houses
now, we are inviting you to help us to design a new possible world.
ephemeral, along the river, for a week of our life.
a place where to hide,
a tropic treasure.