Misbehaving Monument by Davis Richardson
Misbehaving Monuments is a pair of cast plaster objects (or is it a single object?) which explore qualities usually deemed undesirable in architecture: slumping, squeezing, dripping, drooping, and leaning. These features are typically viewed negatively due to their proclivity for water intrusion or structural failure in the physical dimension, yet in a digital environment where form doesn’t follow performance, such considerations are moot and new opportunities for architectural aesthetics open up. Instead, the objects are intended to produce a sense of delight or wonder about what possible types of worlds could exist where softness and whimsy were pragmatic prerequisites.
Drooopi was founded by Davis Richardson. He is a licensed architect in the state of Texas and holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. He has served as faculty at the Hillier College of Architecture and Design at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and at the Architectural Association Visiting School in London. His work and writing have been featured in the Architect’s Newspaper (where he is a regular contributor and critic, writing on technology in architecture), the A+D Museum, Texas Architect, Paprika!, PLAT, ISSUE, and SXSW, among many others. He gave a TED talk on aesthetic philosophy and ecological thinking in architecture (but he doesn’t recommend watching it). He is currently an architect at REX in New York City, and has worked previously at Overlay Office in Brooklyn, Perkins&Will and THOUGHTBARN in Austin, and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in Seattle, among others.
