Jenna Al-Ali

Recognising Ineffable Spaces - Beyond the Forces of Nature, Geneva 2009

In and Ex-plosion

Architectural forces in Nature

The project is an interdisciplinary investigation into notions of the ineffable, aiming to understand the role of indeterminate, irrational and even unexplainable forces in architectural space.

These empirical experiments play with the 'interplay of two opposing forces and the creation of space between them'. Nature’s fugacious way of obtaining order from chaos can also be likened to a more spontaneous closing of two opposing boundary conditions into a loop. This loop represents the most erratic but shortest possible route.

Drawing from Victor Schauberger's experiments into natural forces, attempts were made to inflate the boundary of the loop in order to create spatial conditions that demonstrate this turbulence between the forces while still displaying a navigable route through. The clearest illustration of the loop is the spiralling geometric form caused by the implosion of opposing forces: a quasi-sublimation of architectural space.

Jenna Al-Ali is British from an Iraqi background. She studied her BSc and Diploma at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL where she graduated with First Class Honours in 2009. She is currently working for CRAB (Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham) in London.