This project conceived by New York-based architectural firm Kokkugia reconsiders the monument as object, instead positing the formation of an immersive space of remembrance, a space that emerges from the landscape and is carved from within a somber stone monolith – an inverted monument. The project explores the emergence of a space, rich with intricate detail, reflecting the culmination of individual differences within a multitude.

This project is part of Kokkugia’s ongoing research into Behavioral Design Methodologies. These methodologies operate through Multi-Agent algorithms to generate a landscape with a differentiated field of intensities that culminates in an intense aggregation – the inverted monument. The non-linear interaction of the agents navigate a field of varying charge, negotiating between their own swarm logic and a field of external influences.

The project is concerned both with the emergence of figure from a field as well as the dissolution of the figure into abstraction. The space of remembrance within the inverted monument is cast from bronze and generated through the interaction of agent-based components. At a local level the component has no base state, but instead adapts to its conditions. Consequently while local moments of periodicity may occur, its constant shifting of state triggered by local relationships resists a definitive reading of the component.

The component logic of this carved space is polyscalar: self-similar algorithmic agents operate across scales to form a continuous tectonic, where the legibility of discrete tectonic hierarchies diminish. Through this disintegration of hierarchy a new set of intensive affects emerge.

Design Director: Roland Snooks
Design Team: Casey Rehm, Fleet Hower, Bryant Netter