On Lilith’s House in Edom

< The Guardian of Lies >

This design-led project uses architecture to interpret a story from the Book of Isaiah. According to early translations of the Book of Isaiah, the first wife of Adam before Eve was Lilith, who was created from mud. When Lilith turned to sin, God cast her out of Paradise to live in Edom, an apocalyptic city that had been smote into ruins by God. This project reflects on Joseph Rykwert’s On Adam’s House in Paradise (1971) from the alternative point of view of the dystopian condition. On Adam’s House in Paradise is a seminal book on the origins of architectural dwelling. Structured as a mythological quest for the origins of the first hut, it effectively critiques what Adam’s house would have looked like in the Garden of Paradise. This project is a contemporary, design-based counterpoint to Rykwert's analysis of the utopian hut. "On Lilith’s House in Edom" critiques what Lilith’s house––also a first dwelling––would have looked like in the dystopian city of Edom, while Adam and Eve resided in a very different house in the utopian Garden of Paradise.

This project investigation asks:

What happens to architecture when the image of nature changes, and when the laws of nature change?