Luxury on the Brink

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Cost per cubic inch for five discordant products:

Lucian Pellat-Finet $

76

33

Terrior Coffee Other Music $

How much of each product could I get for the price of:

1

31 $

CB I Hate Perfume

$

25

53

250

0

20

$

Zeiss Lenses

1 Zeiss lens

3 LPF sweaters

10 vials from CB I Hate Perfume

166 CDs from Other Music 2,225 lbs of Terrior coffee

Luxury at the brink The Givens: A column grid on Boston’s Tremont street (across from Boston Public Gardens) and a brief. The Brief: A small department store, to be located within the column grid, with a theme. The Theme: The five senses. Each luxury brand within the department store corresponds to one of the senses. To touch: Lucian Pellat-Finet cashmere sweaters, To taste: Terrior Coffee, to see: Zeiss camera lenses, to smell: CB I Hate Perfume, and to hear: Other Music compact discs. Concurrent economic happenings during the project period: 3 October: TARP bailout becomes law; 30 October: the economy officially in recession; 19 November: the DOW drops below 8,000 points. The student-architect doesn’t need to dig deep to have a cynical disposition towards the luxury department store brief and theme. Calculating the unit price of one cubic inch of each of the given products is an arbitrary but hyper-rational method to quantify and compare the five. Based on the unit price, the spectrum of relative “luxuriousness” or “economic-exclusivity” of the product field can be determined. Andrew Liebchen M.ARCH 2009, critic: Jeffery Katz


$ $$ $$$$ $$$$$ In a standard retail model, the first floor sells to most product. Does this demand the most expensive product be on the lower level?

Or, since these higher sales numbers are due in part to the decreased convenience of the upper floors, should the most popular (least expensive) product be on the lower level? Both options are too non-specific to work as a parti. Solution: dedicate the whole lower level to populist capitalist pursuits (drinking coffee and buying music) and leave the high cost and higher elevation of the luxury goods to divide the common pool of consumers. Each brand is given a space in the column gird, formed by partially enclosing cells of the grid with architectural surfaces. These enclosures or vignettes create an enclosed, floating, up-sidedown world of luxurious delusion; while the grounded levels embrace all people.

Andrew Liebchen M.ARCH 2009, critic: Jeffery Katz


Andrew Liebchen

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Key: 1.) Tremont Street 2.) Other Music 3.) CB I Hate Perfume 4.) Rooftop terrace 5.) Administrative offices 6.) Fire stair 7.) Lucian Pellat-Finet 8.) Zeiss Lenses 9.) Delivery truck 10.) Terrior Coffee 11.) Glass elevator 12.) Christopher Brosius’s office

9

5

11

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4

5

4

7

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8

8

5

3

12 11

2 2

9

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Andrew Liebchen M.ARCH 2009, critic: Jeffery Katz


Zeiss Lenses

Lucian Pellat-Finet

CB I Hate Perfume

Other Music and Terrior Coffee

Andrew Liebchen M.ARCH 2009, critic: Jeffery Katz


Andrew Liebchen

right CB I Hate Perfume, Lucian Pellat-Finet below Terrior Coffee

Andrew Liebchen M.ARCH 2009, critic: Jeffery Katz


Sectional model: 1/4” = 1’-0” Andrew Liebchen M.ARCH 2009, critic: Jeffery Katz


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