The Last Aquarium_Anhong Li

Dear reader, To provide a rich experience, there are two materials that you could view before directly going deep to the final architectural works.

One is the following story , The Last Aquarium And another is a two minutes trailer for the thesis project.

The trailer video is accessible at the link: https://vimeo.com/412085583

Please take the comfortable sequence for yourself between the story and video.

This work is tested to be explained from different narrative views, in which the writer, the character, the architect, the audience are all engaged in the interactions and imaginations.

The full project is accessible at the website page: http://box5756.temp.domains/~anndcom/the-last-aquarium/

Thank you for your time to review the work and I am looking forward to your feeback.

Best,

Anhong Li

THE LAST AQUARIUM

* The architecture is designed in a destructive process. Each character in the story represents one spatial paradox in the architectural phenomenon.

Letter to J Monument | Lies Is the universe of continually replicated blank grids, those monoliths, standing in the silence, under the apparition of scaffoldings, written down its immortal destiny.

He is just one of thousands anonymous, who knows people passing by, nobody will remember that color more than seven seconds.

It is the permanent, freshing ruins, under the chaotic shining water, that never makes a word.

He saw many reflections of himself in numerous mirrors.

They greeted each other with covered ears and closed eyes.

At the end of the day, it's restarted.

This place used to have a name.

Anonymous

1% CHAPTER ONE One day, under the pressure of the "Free Animal Movement", the state announced a new policy that all aquariums in the country need to close down and liberate all animals back to their mother nature. However, the public vote for a compromise scheme, that one aquarium will be selected to stay as the memorial of demolished others and maintain as the evidence of the vanished memory. They name it "The Last Aquarium", which holds the last human-made water ecosystem and creatures within. After "The Last Aquarium" is settled down, it becomes the most precious monument in the country. ......

X is the set designer in this aquarium that he takes responsibility for designing and change the interior of exhibition space. He is sitting in his office, where he has a wall full of screens that monitor different zones in the open exhibition space. "The Last Aquarium" has a massive amount of architectural areas that provide maximum habitat freedom for the remaining species. To give the public refreshing visiting experience in different seasons, the aquarium office announced a particular policy that only parts of places will open each time, and the boundary will keep changing along with re-designed themes. X considers this strategy to decrease the building maintenance fee and taking care of the excitement expectation for visitors. The only thing he curious about is he also doesn't have the full map of the aquarium, even he has been working here for almost one year.

X glances at the upper left corner of each screen, where a five-number code is used for different camera views. At the beginning of working here, he used to get overwhelming for these numbers, which he thought it's representing thousands of areas that exist in this place. Each time when the aquarium redefines the opening space, the monitor contents will shift with new codes appear. While nowadays X gets used to it and sometimes he even enjoys the moment when the monitors suddenly turn to black and later transfer to completely different scenes. He doesn't know who made those decisions for operating open/close space, maybe it is the computer or the curator J. But X never asked.

Curator J is such a mysterious person for X, that X only meet him online for work checking. J was always in a dark room, in which the shadow covers his face that X can't make any impression on it. J's voice is also quite flat that the sense of less emotion often lets X felt stressed during the conversation. X tries to recall his memory on J, its just turn to be a glitch image with a blurring figure outline.

* The Curator J (Joker) presents the paradox of "Hidden truth" vs "Complete lies" in the architecture, that the hidden space is usually established intentionally to make the visible part feels complete.

Letter from X Black Room | Suspect Endless days bind my hands, the fluorescent light from homogenous surfaces torture my mind.

Once I imagined, everything was not supposed to be like that.

At the deep side of the screen, is the abyss calling my name.

It duplicates, overlaps, grows and distorts willfully within the maddening lines, it spraws in parallel worlds, and one day will knock a door upon my back.

I will grab the red thread it hands me, and walk along in the collapsing hallway.

The numbers under footprints will fall into the crevices, while I can look through the increasingly thick walls, to the original I.

3% CHAPTER TWO "X, I don't think it is necessary to increase the frequency of changing exhibitions in the aquarium. But I like your design for the next theme, 'kaleidoscope', it will be great for our visitors. Also for your wish to have the building map, sorry, it's the confidential document. I trust your ability that this extra information won't influence your design decisions."

The weekly meeting with Curator J is finished and he rejected X to access the entire footprint of the aquarium. X doesn't surprise for this answer, but he also confirms his idea that the building management has something unusual.

"If you don't give me the map, I can try to make one......" X feels excited about exploring the truth of this place.

And he thinks if he achieves that, the map could be a gift to his girlfriend, who also works in the aquarium as a biologist. His girlfriend has been working here longer than X, but she is so addicted to her research that she never cares anything else than the water field. X can imagine her face if she gets this gift, maybe she will say it's wasting time, but some smile will sell her heart.

X starts to draw his routes after every exhibition visiting for the work needs. One trick he figures out that mess up his measuring capacity is those escalators and elevators crossing different areas, where the time, speed, and directions seem intentionally disoriented his senses. After he holds enough numbers of drawings from his paths, X tried different methods to connect them. While under the assumption that a large percentage of the spaces might be the first time to open, the map becomes an endless adding-on result that expands out of the periphery then X initially thought.

"Maybe the most impossible result is the fact?" X reviews a huge map on a floor after his reconstruction, that he has no clue how much this plan close to the real look of this place, and also how much it's complete. He wonders how much effort the government put to build this gigantic monster, which now he feels exhausted to assembly those tiny jigsaw puzzles.

"It's not interesting at all." X lies down beside these drawings and falls to sleep.

In his dream, X is the Theseus goes deep into the labyrinth to kill the monster Minotaur. When he almost reaches the center, the view slowly turns to dark and the vision seems loss. The monster walks toward him, with the increasing chaotic screaming. He raises the sword to cut the head, but nothing on that side.

* The architecture starts to represent its dual-personalities when the projecting reality of space and perceptual imagination by characters separate from each other.

Letter from X Net | Hunt She shows up again, on the upper left corner of screen 87961 at 5:03 pm.

Her emotions are obscure, as her face with the cold tone simultaneously holds pleasure and gloom.

She is the only one able to observe in the labyrinthine myth, her figure moving across in these frozen zones, and on the edge of blind spot, she will look toward me with intentional smiles.

She has all of me, and all the escapeless gazes behind the lens.

The body, this shell is flipping inside out, with exposed nerves shaking in the dust of passing winds.

I want to receive the nose of dogs, from which I can sense and remake her trace, to where she disappears, that corner or that wall, I could hear her echo from invisible cracks.

9% CHAPTER THREE X is sitting on the bench in the main exhibition area, recently he sleeps more than before, maybe because of his decreasing interest in the waking up world. The current theme is "Kaleidoscope", which except the window of the water tank and main path, the rest area is covered with colored reflective boards and mirrors to build an illusionary fantasy experience. Space, people, and water world are rotated and reorganized in those mirrors with different tones of colors that are applied as a filter. X could tell some familiar faces among the visitors, that some of them had visited the aquarium for several times. Obviously, "The Last Aquarium" opening policy works well to attract the public.

X looks around the place, he finds his face and his back are presenting in two opposite mirrors on the corners of the room. In the mirror, he is looking in a different direction. X turns around his head to that, where is the jellyfish collection locate. He notices a person is standing in front of the jellyfish glass. When he wants to see clear to the face, his sight meets with another sight looking at him. It's a girl who also notices him, and she seems to stare at him for a while. X quickly drags his focus to somewhere else. His heart almost loses a beat at that moment. He doesn't know why that girl is watching him, but her face was recognized for X a long time ago. X knows her that she came to the aquarium every day though the monitor records, which stand out from other visitors who may only come in different seasons. X used to thought the girl is just crazy fun to this place and having nothing else to do in the daily time. But he feels a little awkward to meet her in real space. X stands up to leave, and the girl also moves her step toward him. She passes by him with the smell of light perfume leaving in the air. X doesn't know where his nervous come from, as it's impossible that the girl knows he's working here. He scratches his head, and suddenly he finds his watch is gone. X immediately searches around and catches his watch in a mirror reflection, which is on the hand of that girl. When he turns his sight back, he can't find her anymore in the surrounding.

It is the first time that X wants to pursue something so badly. The watch is not that expensive for him, but he can feel that fire is burning in his mind. "What a thief." X runs to find the spot where could be the place he last saw her, where is a corner of the room, and no one there. He looks up to where the monitors are, and he finds he is standing in a blind spot. "Well, smart girl." X sighs with a slight smirk. Unconsciously, he notices the wall beside him seems to have a part shift out the position. He hesitates for a second, then pushes the piece, which is rotated to a dark open space. X is shocked, as he never knows there is any hidden door in the aquarium.

* The Set Designer X is the person presents the paradox that "Destruction is the new way of Creation". The reconstructed spatialization could be done through perceptual shifting or physical reassembly.

Letter to A Light | Encounter When you stare at a dot, it will expand to the entire world, when you look into the eyes of a fish, it will look back at you.

She saw these as her tool, the vague pencil marks on the wall are her fingers, The scattered stones beneath the chair belong to the shadow of the moon seen the day before, And the remaining breath on the water is her name, all of the doors she opened belong to her, the divided dash lines broke.

The person following her fell down the inverted stairs, and the scar on the body reminded him of the sand she brought here.

A new entrance slowly raising up, the same distance from the exit, but with different shadows.

Anonymous

17% CHAPTER FOUR X never expect this is how he could finally step in the mystery of this place, just for catching a thief. However, the temptation of the dark side, along with the unforgettable attraction of the girl finally led him in. What behind the door is different than he imagined. It is a narrow corridor which fully covered by mechanical fibers.

The LED lights from sensors are twinkling in the same frequency throughout the whole space to a far end where he can't see clearly. And every two seconds, all the lights are off with a moment of entirely black. X is not good at handling the deep fear and dark. He wishes there is something worth waiting for him in this adventure. X walks carefully between those tubes, with some mottled light gradually appears from the end of the gap. He reaches a room that seems is located behind the main fish tank in the exhibition lobby, where surprisingly, X could see through the water wall to observe what is happening on another side. The shapes for the people passing through and the swimming fishes are distorted with strange overlapping transparency.

He thinks that maybe reasonable under the light effect of curved glass. And it's one-directional glass as X can tell no people notices himself.

X is curious about whether this is designed intentionally, "who will be the person standing here?" He looks around the space as his visual ability becomes a little better after light adaption. And he finds a staircase along the opposite wall which he didn't notice at the beginning. X realizes his initial space assumption was wrong, that the room isn't a simple backside of the fish tank, but a void space that is going up to somewhere is too high to see through in the limited lighting condition. X doesn't want to risk to explore in such inadequate preparation; he would rather go back and get a flashlight to restart. It is not feeling good for him that situate in a condition of loss control. Maybe the girl is hiding somewhere, but the room is quiet like death, only his accelerated heartbeat he could hear.

He goes back to the fiber gap, and all the spread tubes seem to become much denser. X tries to find the door which he came in, but the wall is fully covered with dark tubes that he can't find it anymore. The wall surface is smooth, without any suspected edges. "It has to be an exit here." X takes a deep breath and wants to maintain his rationality, he thinks that's maybe just a directional mistake. He starts to check every part of the wall on two sides, and finally, his fingers touch into an empty field. X is excited out of mind. He pushes the tubes to see the outline of the hole, which is smaller than the door, but some light he could tell come from the end side. There are no other ways he can go. X decides to ignore his concern for the misdirection. He squeezed across the hole, while he can tell the spatial sizes is different than before.

The space that is connected to is rainy, X steps out from the wall, the floor is wet with a thin layer of ripples.

He looks up, where the "rain" is dripping down from the ceiling, shinning under the affluence of the light from the tiny openings. "Where am I?" He thinks maybe he already dead or still dreaming, that he is in the place be sure not in the aquarium. The sprinkled light is flooded in the space like the cabin sank on the base of the ocean. X is staring at the "raindrops", and walking closer to the middle of the room want to see what is going on from the resource. Inadvertently, he loses his balance on the slippery surface. Without anything to support him, X falls backward uncontrollably. He hears the muffled sound when his head hits on the hard surface and he could feel the cold water splash to his face. Everything seems familiar like it happened before. The surroundings become darker and slowly fade away. At the last second, he sees the face of the girl.

Finally, he finds her. * The Thief A presents the questioning on the material authority between "the body of origin" and "detached piece". In the context of the aquarium, the truth of the material is "water".

Letter from O Another Dream | Dilemma I used to dream about him, that he drove the white boat, in the fog of the night that I had never seen before.

A dark yellow light from far away traced his outline, all my thoughts disappeared with the waves caused by the swirl from the bottom of the river.

I used to follow him, like all the fishes looked for the first human on the dry land, like the skin turned into transparent in the continued evolution, wishing to be able to store the shrinking world to the bubble.

I used to lose him, just like any other similar loss, like the pain when the water and air were separated, like the withered roots in the desert.

I held it tight, But nothing left at the end.

35% CHAPTER FIVE X wakes up. The water texture is shining on the ceiling, with a sense of peace. He feels like he has been dreaming for a long time, that there is a moment when it is hard to tell what is real and fake.

"How are you feeling now?"

A familiar sound drags back his consciousness. He looks aside, it's O standing beside the door.

X recognizes he's sleeping in her laboratory room, that the room is well equipped with a huge glass window to the aquarium water space. O is the biologist working here, also his girlfriend. They know each other from the staff welcome party when X joins in.

"Why am I here?" X asks, in his memory, there are blurring images of the dark room, the rain, and the face of the girl. But he can't tell whether that was a dream or real thing.

"The Curator J told me that you missed the online meeting, he thought you might be working too hard and asked me to check your condition, turns out you were falling unconscious in your design office." O sits down on the bedside, and hands over a glass of water to him.

"Sorry, I don't remember at all. How long have I been sleeping?" X feels confused about O's description, as he can't recall anything about what he did in his office. " Just half day. You are fine, just too tired, please don't put too much pressure on the theme design, if you feel the workload is too much, we can quit the job......" O speaks with worry, that sometimes X feels empathy for her sensitivity.

"Don't worry, the job works perfect for me, and recently I found something more interesting." X laughs. He looks into the fish tank and wonders if the girl is watching on another side right now. He could tell there is an unfamiliar emotion from his mind gradually rising, something dangerous but excited.

"What's the last time you dive into the aquarium? I feel it's been a long time that we haven't done the diver show."

O turns a little surprised for his question. "You forget that it is the new policy to protect the water space, that humans should not interrupt those creatures, now we have robots to do the ecosystem monitoring, no need for myself to go in person."

"Do you think the visitors also interrupt those fishes? I mean they can say each other through the glass, right?" X askes, as he now remembers clearly what he saw in the room behind the fish tank, that the glass is transparent.

"No, they won't, the glass is only visible in one direction, I know that and it was also the original design standard for the aquarium," O responds with a convinced tone.

"Well, let me tell you a secret then......" X looks at her with a smirk on his face. His girlfriend should be innocent for the aquarium's real look for a long time, as she works here with loyalty for almost five years.

X tells her everything that he confirmed as real experiences, except the part of the thief girl. He is expecting either a shocking or surprise response from O, but her face turns to be gravely and sadly as he keeps talking.

When X notices something strange, he stops speaking. The only thing he can read from her eyes, is fear.

* Biologist O (Omega) represents the paradox of "Self-destruction" and "Endless-preservation" in the building environment, which is demonstrated from her personality as the fear of emotion loss.

Letter to O and X One Side of Water | Escape He is just one of innumerable refreshed versions, she is just one of countless escaped accomplices.

The scarlet curtains impregnate into blue, the stage appears.

She is standing under the water, she reaches layers of clothings made by soapy bubbles.

The specimen of time is built into the corpus of stone, the drowning fishes are awakened, and the icy face vanishes into the flowing profile, translated into a gigantic crystal facade.

She says, let me tell you a secret, at the moment, water turns silent.

Anonymous

67% CHAPTER SIX "Are you feeling ok?"

After a long silence, X carefully asks. O is turning her head, looking for another direction, that X can't see her emotion on her face.

"I am fine." O's voice is shaking. "I think you don't know what you are talking about, the aquarium is the country monument, there is no reason that some strange hidden space or raining water will exist."

"But......"

"No, that was your dream." O looks back to X, that her words are pronounced strongly as a command.

X could tell the trace of tears in her eyes, but he doesn't understand why O reacted like this, which instead of believing him or making a joke, she is more resistant to the content and rejects what he said.

"Okay...maybe you are right." X pretends to be compromised. "I think I still need to sleep more......" He lies down and closes his eyes. He can hear that O stays for a few minutes and then leaves the room. X opens his eyes and stares at the small monitor on the ceiling. He suddenly feels he is being watched by someone, just like in the past he is watching the thief through the screen.

O didn't show up for a week since the last time she talked with X in the laboratory room. X tried several times to call her or to visit her office, but she just disappeared with no sign he could find. "Is her mad at me?"

X keeps questioning himself, but he doesn't know what he said triggered her. "I didn't say anything for the girl......"

X feels maybe O was too sensitive, and probably he can wait a little longer for the reconciliation. His daily work routine starts to change, that X will spend much more time to find the girl through screens. The girl still shows up every day, that she always will find and stand beside the jellyfish tank no matter how the interior is different than the last time. X also tried to stay in the exhibition room to meet her, but she can always find the path that X can't see her in the real space. The attraction from the girl is increasing in each second, that X even finds himself hard to sleep just staring at her face from the recording footage. X also went back to where he remembered the door is located, but just like he expected, the wall is perfect with no cracks on the surface. And after the opening areas are shifted again after that, the only clue is completely lost. The girl becomes the only hope to reveal the truth of the aquarium. Although at the beginning the interest to find the mystery of this building is not so strong to him, now X is addicted to the exploration.

"What's the problem! X, you didn't give the new design proposal and it already delayed for a week!" X is finally waiting until the next online meeting with Curator J. It is clear that J gets mad at X's condition, but the only thing X could see is the dark face in the shadow with no notable feature.

"Sorry, sir. I just really worry about O, she didn't come to work for a week now and I can't find her." X stares at J, that he believes J knows everything about this place but keeping the secret. To put on some pressure to J, X even hangs the drawings for what he saw in the hidden space include his reconstrued map of the building on the back wall.

"X, you should think more for yourself, I never heard a person name is O working here."

J comes closer to the screen, that with the limited light X could tell the curved up mouth on his face.

Suddenly, someone is knocking on the door.

* In the beginning, those paradoxes are independent, as they interacted with each other, the scenario becomes complex. And they together de(re) constructed the "reality" of the architecture.

Letter to You No Place | Creation False metaphysics and existentialism, and the water stains the blank paper.

River, ocean, dark reef and the distant shocking thunder, the dead illusion and flashing electric current.

Your shape appears on the camouflaged transparent mirrors, but you are not here.

A procession of huge jellyfish up into the air, with an impossible background of people singing, circle is infinity, square is endless.

Fireworks bloom, bringing the smell of salt, however, It is clear that neither you, nor the night, are here.

Anonymous

99% CHAPTER SEVEN "Mr.X, we got a report that your mental state is not stable recently. And as a staff working in the country monument buildings, you are suspected of breaking and hacking the management system."

Two police officers are standing out the door with presenting governmental badge.

"What......?" X starts to laugh, he thoughts its just a cheap trick from the Curator J to shut off his month. He looks back to the online meeting screen, that J already left.

"You should be serious about this, Mr.X, we have evidence." One the officer shows him the recording footage, that he is alone in the laboratory room that tried to uninstall the monitor on the ceiling.

"Are you kidding me? I am just checking the devices and that's my girlfriend's office, her name is O and she's the biologist here. You can ask her I did nothing on that!" X can't believe what he did is big enough to get the attention from police, on that day he just super curious about where the signal of the monitor goes to and check the chip from it.

"I think your delusional disorder is just confirmed, that there is no person name O works here. And that is not an office, it is the secret room for government documents. Please allow us to take you to the police station."

The police handcuff X. At that moment, all the confusion and doubt in his mind are cleared. He knows he will be marked as a person who can't tell the reality and imagination, that no people will believe what he will say later on. And he knows that the only thing he wants to publish is the secret space in the aquarium. Although he has no conclusion about what actually happens, now he is confirmed that he is right. Something is existing that can't be reviewed on the deep side of this place. ......

"The Last Aquarium", as the uniquel monument in the country, is opening to the public with different exhibition areas in each season. The interior themes are keeping changing all the time, to provide a refreshing visiting experience for people who want to have their unique memory in here. X is released on bail after he cooperated with the police works without any resistance and stayed in jail for one month. He signed on the medical report for his delusional disorder and promised to take the scheduled hospital check. He goes back to "The Last Aquarium", as a ordinary visitor, appreciated the fantasy scenes of the water world. The crowd is gathering in the middle of the atrium to watch the giant water screen, where the sharks are swimming in it like they are in the ocean. X is standing on the side, that he looks through the gap of people, to the end of the room. A small jellyfish tank is on the corner, and a familiar face is beside. X walks toward her without any hesitation. The girl seems to notice him already, as she is also looking at him with a welcoming smile.

* As the destruction is a continual process, there is no real ending of it.