Testing Need Desire This series of collages examines the relationship between the Need Desire for development and the testing / structure needed in swelling clay (or expansive soil). Here a series of prototypical Desires are examined by a series of assembled testing apparatus.
The argument can be made that the measures taken by the State of Colorado to modify the construction requirements for building in this geological region, will reduce the cost of repairing buildings and infrastructure in expansive clay soils – less than the cost of repairs for buildings built prior to these codes. However, this does not address whether there should actually be development in this region, as we are still hindered by the position that nature can be controlled. As we peel back the veil of the ground surface to examine the infrastructure below (see the model on the facing page), we do not find any added benefits such as an underground train system connecting the city or an infrastructure of communications. Rather, we find a structural system coping with a geological condition that significantly increases the costs of building the same sprawl found elsewhere, where land is perceived to be cheap. There is an uncalculated cost incurred for this public and private denial of the conditional demands of swelling soils. Density may be one solution to this issue, concentrating cost and amortizing it over large-scale construction and shared infrastructure – i.e. this would be the role of the city. The other approach is to embrace this condition and to develop it for its advantages, freeing us from a constant and expensive battle against control . c
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