Portfolio - Robert Schaffer

Hinterland:

Spring 2020 | Semester IV | University of Pennsylvania

Concert Hall Studio with Simon Kim & Katarina Marjanovic

Collaborators: Christine Eichhorn

Publications:

Nominated for Pressing Matters X

suckerPUNCH Daily

hin·ter·land

/’hin(t)er , land/

noun noun:

hinterland; plural noun: hinterlands

1. an area lying beyond what is visible or known. “in the hinterland of his mind these things rose, dark and ominous”

2. the often uncharted areas beyond a coastal district or a river’s banks. “early settlers were driven from the coast into the hinterland”

Similar:

the back of beyond, the middle of nowhere, the backwoods the wilds, the tall timbers, a backwater, the back country, the booay, the backveld, the boondocks, beyond the black stump

Opposite:

civilization

Origin: late 19th century: from German, from hinter ‘behind’ + Land ‘land’

Buried beneath the earth, Hinterland appears as little more than a mound of earth to those passing by. Carved into the landscape, a single entrance and sequence restricts guests, prescribing their journey as they descend deeper into the ground.

Hinterland embraces the idea of temporality and speculates on the nature of the building as it enters the post-human era. This transitory study begins with the creation of the building and moves forward in time hundreds of years to a world that post dates the human race.

ho·mun·cu·lus

/he’ meNGkyeles , hō’ meNGkyeles/

noun plural noun: homunculi

1. a supposed microscopic but fully formed planet

2. a microcosm

The homunculus is a hybrid between organism and micro-planet. Prior to fertilization, the homunculus exists as a soft skull embedded within a thin crust of humus encapsulated by a porous membrane.

Homunculi fall under the classification of dwarf planets due their capability of harboring life forms on the surface and the ability to generate their own atmosphere.

Due to the rampant growth of a homunculus it is advised by professionals to add a protective shell to the outer crust in order to decelerate growth. In the case study shown, the homunculus resists the concrete shell, expanding and eroding with the growth of the grass.

Similar to the way that humans have tried to control the wilderness in the world in which we live, mankind continues the mission to tame homunculi behavior.

The history of the homunculi will remain disclosed.

With the site’s location found on the East River, our amphitheater carves down into the water and submerges its belly into the rocky shores that rest there. Rather than fight against the flow of the river, the stage and surrounding box seats tilt and bob with the rising and falling of the river’s tidal seasons.

To enter the coffered belly of this space buried deep in the ground, visitors must first descend through a series of episodic moments, removing any ties to the land above in order to lose themselves in the ground beneath. As if from a ritual, the descent follows the stream of water and moves through a cavernous cistern before opening up into the amphitheater beyond. This project doesn’t look to create a building, but rather a foreign realm buried beneath us - a world within worlds.