Jude Krake

The Meri House was designed by architects Pezo von Ellrichshausen in 2014 for a family in La Floridia, Chile. Initially, the project was a much bigger, more permanent home. However, changes were made at the client’s request. The biggest change was the size, as it is about 1/3rd the size of the initial design. The grid-like structure of the house, having ten rooms and no corridors, is similar to a “shotgun house”, or, for those in New York City, a railway-style apartment, meaning that all rooms open up into one another, every room becomes an enfilade, in a sort of way.

The materiality of the house is mainly pine, and since the structure in itself is a large rectangle, my approach to the model building for the sake of keeping it interesting was to make it more transparent–quite literally. Acrylic sheets were used for the majority of the model, while aluminum dowels imply the four edge corners of the house. All this was done in an attempt to remain as fluid and relatively simplistic as the original architects intended, while still steering away from building a true, hyper-realistic scaled model.

Working with the Chipstone Foundation provided a wonderful experience to better understand full-scale models, and some aspects of construction. We were given plenty of space to work with in the attic of the carriage house that sits on the Chipstone Foundation’s property.

“Between the 17th and 19th centuries, the rise of tobacco and tea in Western Europe came with major social, political, and economic implications. Tobacco became one of the primary products to fuel colonialization as well as the driving factor of African slave labor. Tea was produced in harsh working conditions that resulted in poverty and famine for Chinese and Indian countries.

These ceramics–a tea saucer, tobacco jar, and money box–highlight the British accumulation of capital through the exploitation of other countries during this time.

In this performative exhibit, these objects representing wealth and status are displayed with importance. At the same time, the realities of exploitation and oppression unveil themselves through visuals displayed on sheer curtains. Once you look ‘behind the scenes’, smells, sounds, and sights associated with these commodities reveal the disturbing and unsettling history that came along with tea, tobacco, and the accumulation of wealth in Western Europe.”