The Great Migration

Wandering Beast is a study that speculates on animals’ 3.8 billion years old morphology adaptation as the basis of architectural form and performance. The study proposes architectural organisms composed from multitude of organs to suit its environment and task, it eats and excrete waste responsibly then ‘migrate’ to new locations, leaving resources enough time to regenerate and pollinate the soil along the way. The narrative serves as a critique towards the exploitative “parasite” that many cities and buildings have become, that sprawls in all directions in search of “food” from faraway places while ignoring the host’s ability to regenerate.

The image on display, titled “The Great Migration”, depicts the “migration” ability of these architectural entities as a means of adaptation towards the depleting environment. The migration is timed according to an ecological scenario to give nature a chance to replenish and regrow after being used for a certain timeframe. Adopting the various abilities of an animal organism, this migration also serves as an important pollinating function that disperse seeds and organic matter along its journey, giving nutrient rich substance to the path it took.

The project at the origin of this drawing is a part of my undergraduate final project which is prized with an final project award for environmental consciousness in 2022. Following my graduation, this drawing together with the project have been exhibited at multiple national scale competitions which include ATRIA in Bandung Institute of Technology, and AFAIR in Universitas Indonesia. In mid 2023, the drawing “The Great Migration ” was longlisted in the Archisource’s Drawing of the Year 2022 edition for getting into the top 500 drawings from thousands of entries.