To all interested parties,
The Kansas State University chapter of the American Institute of
Architecture Students (AIAS) will be holding a FREE 24-hour design competition
February 10-11 1995 on the KSU campus in Manhattan, KS (2 hours west of Kansas
City). ANYONE interested in being involved as a participant or spectator can
contact Eric Hackman (hac@xxxxxxxxxxxx) for more information. The organizers
may still be looking to fill one or two judge positions, also. Any suggestions
persons with some connection to the topic who might be available, would be
appreciated.
(A "charrette" or timed design project such as this is a common occurance in
architecture circles, both student and professional. Participants are given a
set of guidelines and have a limited period of time, in this case 24 hours, in
which to complete a presentation. While presentations are normally drawings,
because the sponsors of this competition are trying to recruit "poets, writers,
artists, designers, architects, sculptors, philosophers,..." the format may be
much more diverse.)
The following is the project statement being sent to other schools in the
midwest region.
PROJECT MINUTEMAN
Project Minutemen is a design competition organized by
Kansas State University College of Architecture and
Design. It is open to the participation of individual
artists, architects, and groups of interested people in
any field.
Recently abandoned and disarmed Minutemen nuclear silos
have been revealed throughout the Midwest region. The
location of these sites have been disclosed only within
the last few years and following the termination of the
Cold War. Yet these obsolete silos stand as a reminder
to human faith and the advancement of progress and
technology which has been evoked through peacetime
efforts. The revealing of these sites presents an
openness to the once hidden fear and instability of a
nation. They become remnants of our defense and
protection which was marked by threat and annihilation.
Are the silos remnants to a world in which we have left
behind, or will they remain precursors to an empty world,
bound with a fear of nuclear holocaust. Project
Minutemen seeks to inaugurate contemporary meaning for
the dormant nuclear silos within the Midwest region The
projects becomes an attempt to interpret the
contradictions and enigmas of our age, at the beginning
of a new era and on the threshold of a new millennium.
What was once an imbedded meaning within the active
silos, now seeks to be reversed and reinterpreted. The
new meaning engages our contemporary society and
challenges the cultural and technological ideologies of
our nation. Project Minutemen releases the human freedom
which was once bound to the nuclear arms race and exposes
the formalistic truth and universal beauty found in pure
forms and functions.
Today, these missile silos are obsolete, as are the fears
and aspirations of a society which developed them.
Recent erosions of political polarities, marked by the
end of the Cold War, will further obscure our
interpretation of military industrialization. Therefore,
there calls for a reinterpretation of our views which are
bound to political, economic, and industrial structures,
thus diverting the fear which has underlined our culture
throughout the Cold War period.
Project Minutemen calls for the transformation of an
archetype; by altering, adding to, or reconstructing the
obsolete silos in physical form or in conceptual terms.
What then becomes an emblem to our past must then
transform to express the integrity and reveal the
ideologies of our nation s future.
The Kansas State University chapter of the American Institute of
Architecture Students (AIAS) will be holding a FREE 24-hour design competition
February 10-11 1995 on the KSU campus in Manhattan, KS (2 hours west of Kansas
City). ANYONE interested in being involved as a participant or spectator can
contact Eric Hackman (hac@xxxxxxxxxxxx) for more information. The organizers
may still be looking to fill one or two judge positions, also. Any suggestions
persons with some connection to the topic who might be available, would be
appreciated.
(A "charrette" or timed design project such as this is a common occurance in
architecture circles, both student and professional. Participants are given a
set of guidelines and have a limited period of time, in this case 24 hours, in
which to complete a presentation. While presentations are normally drawings,
because the sponsors of this competition are trying to recruit "poets, writers,
artists, designers, architects, sculptors, philosophers,..." the format may be
much more diverse.)
The following is the project statement being sent to other schools in the
midwest region.
PROJECT MINUTEMAN
Project Minutemen is a design competition organized by
Kansas State University College of Architecture and
Design. It is open to the participation of individual
artists, architects, and groups of interested people in
any field.
Recently abandoned and disarmed Minutemen nuclear silos
have been revealed throughout the Midwest region. The
location of these sites have been disclosed only within
the last few years and following the termination of the
Cold War. Yet these obsolete silos stand as a reminder
to human faith and the advancement of progress and
technology which has been evoked through peacetime
efforts. The revealing of these sites presents an
openness to the once hidden fear and instability of a
nation. They become remnants of our defense and
protection which was marked by threat and annihilation.
Are the silos remnants to a world in which we have left
behind, or will they remain precursors to an empty world,
bound with a fear of nuclear holocaust. Project
Minutemen seeks to inaugurate contemporary meaning for
the dormant nuclear silos within the Midwest region The
projects becomes an attempt to interpret the
contradictions and enigmas of our age, at the beginning
of a new era and on the threshold of a new millennium.
What was once an imbedded meaning within the active
silos, now seeks to be reversed and reinterpreted. The
new meaning engages our contemporary society and
challenges the cultural and technological ideologies of
our nation. Project Minutemen releases the human freedom
which was once bound to the nuclear arms race and exposes
the formalistic truth and universal beauty found in pure
forms and functions.
Today, these missile silos are obsolete, as are the fears
and aspirations of a society which developed them.
Recent erosions of political polarities, marked by the
end of the Cold War, will further obscure our
interpretation of military industrialization. Therefore,
there calls for a reinterpretation of our views which are
bound to political, economic, and industrial structures,
thus diverting the fear which has underlined our culture
throughout the Cold War period.
Project Minutemen calls for the transformation of an
archetype; by altering, adding to, or reconstructing the
obsolete silos in physical form or in conceptual terms.
What then becomes an emblem to our past must then
transform to express the integrity and reveal the
ideologies of our nation s future.