brillhart architecture

DOMAIN

5×5 Participatory Provocations Exhibit

PROMPT: DronePorts

LOCATION: Currently on Exhibit at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad infernos:
whoever’s is the soil, it is theirs all the way to Heaven and all the way to the depths below.

The advent of commercial and recreational drones is opening up a world of possibilities – but it is also raising privacy and safety issues, noise and nuisance complaints, policing challenges, and legal questions regarding property law. DOMAIN explores the notion of individual property rights in the x-y-z axes. It not only forces us to contemplate the air space we own; but also reminds us of the rights zoning authorities exercise on our private property; the permanent rights (easements) we grant others to access our land; and our subterranean boundaries below.

This work was among 25 projects included in the 5×5 Participatory Provocations Exhibit, which opened February 15, 2016 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Curated by Julia van den Hout, Kevin Erickson, and Kyle May, the exhibition argues for participatory criticism and the engagement of architecture in a series of significant issues we face today, from a growing income gap, immigration, and globalization, to technology’s impact on our lives, surveillance, and power.

Each team responded to one of five prompts — contemplating the future of drone deliveries, the consequence of the construction of extreme luxury highrises as financial investments, luxury tourism on the moon, the fictional development of NSA community branches, and the potential construction of an anti-immigration wall on the border between the United States and Mexico.

For more information on the exhibit, please click here.