Shelby Hamet’s Scuttlebutt, a shelter design-build project at The School of Architecture, explores temporality and inflatable construction as space making tactics to create a space for collective grief and joy. Shelby drew upon her experience during the Covid-19 pandemic, as an inspiration to overcome that which she describes as “a crisis of grief”. This project, developed in anticipation of the end of the pandemic, aims to provide an approachable space for communities to gather, share experience, and celebrate renewed connections.
Sewn entirely from ripstop nylon, Shelby, uses color and symbols to represent the five stages of grief throughout the piece. Initially found nestled beneath Arcosanti’s iconic Vaults, Scuttlebutt’s lightweight structure allows it to be easily transported from place to place, needing only a bit of space and a power source to come to life. During these strange and challenging times, Scuttlebutt finds itself asking: is architecture allowed to have fun?
This notion of fun is explored further in a virtual environment in which the form ofScuttlebutt can be experienced by anyone. The School of Architecture’s Shelter World—a virtual game environment, led by Teaching Fellow Leah Wulfman and contributor Bika Rebek, is another take on the virtual end-of-year show. The Shelter World serves as a participatory and social format for final reviews, as well as an environment in which TSOA’s student-built structures can be related to from afar.
However, Scuttlebuttoffers far more than an uplifting confluence of color and form, or a playful form nestled in the digital ether of Shelter World. It offers the possibility of a future after Covid. A future when we can enjoy this playful cocoontogether. When through the notion of pop-up place making, and with the simple act of inflation, this shelter’sthin membrane willcreatethe locus for a future that has yet to come.
