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Diluvian Landscape Design | Fall 2019 G e o r g i a I n s t i t u t e o f Te c h n o l o g y C a m p u s Professor Sabir Khan
“Diluvian” is a shrine for the Georgia Institute of Technology’s vehicular mascot, the Ramblin’ Wreck. The car’s history dates back to 1914 with Dean Floyd Field as the original owner. Over the years, the Ramblin’ Wreck has become a mascot for the student body, operating at sport events and student body functions. The word, diluvian, stems from the biblical reference for “flood” in the Book of Genesis. According the biblical story, God saw that the earth was corrupt and filled with violence, and thus he created a flood to reverse its creation. God instructed Noah to build an ark in which he, his sons, and their wives, together with male and female of all living creatures, would be saved from the waters. Viewing the the car as a political, social, and historical figure, “Diluvian” is a project that addresses the larger scale issue of the campus while also addressing the smaller scale issue of the Ramblin’ Wreck. “Diluvian” is a landscape project that erases the chaos of the campus’ current state and replaces the chaos with a recreational plaza. The plaza has a antediluvian (before flood) and postdiluvian (after-flood) states. It becomes a hard scape at certain moments and it becomes a water scape at other moments. “Diluvian” is also a structural project in creating an amphibious shrine, an ark, for the Ramblin’ Wreck as it floats and walks on water during the postdiluvian state. “Diluvian” serves to commemorate the Ramblin’ Wreck as integral tradition to Georgia Tech and serves to what Georgia Tech, as a developing sustainable campus, in the future.
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