POLITE vs. SENSATIONAL

whiskey distillery and event venue

 Polite vs. Sensational is an investigation into the reveal, a transition between contrasting interior and exterior aesthetics that beckon the viewer into inner worlds. Discrete geometric languages collide and blur as the colorful interior spectacle pushes against its typical warehouse container. A field of teardrop forms houses the similarly radial distilling equipment, peaks and valleys puncturing and carving to create chimneys and cellars as needed. A soft, undulating layer of resin-cast felt leans between the container and field, mediating relationships between public, private, and production. Spaces like the kiln-centered social lounge and rooftop event venue emerge from squishing and dimpling between forms. Where concrete container meets felt mediator or mediator meets teardrop field, a swap of physical and chemical properties occurs. Suddenly copper is resin-cast and dripping with lacquer while felt corrodes and develops a patina. Exciting opportunities for social interaction are amplified by vivid hues and stratified topographies of pooled lacquer, felt, and concrete. Visitors are filtered through varied spatial and social encounters, from the polite and normative exterior to the diverse interior pockets of color and sensation.

Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York | Spring 2017

In Collaboration with Margaret Gregg

Advised by Nate Hume