Architecture is inescapably social, cultural and political. Through a formal analysis of the São Paulo Museum of Art as a point of departure, Architecture of Peculiarity speculates on the social, cultural and political potentialities of architecture, finding form and space through strangeness and peculiarity.
Derived from an alphabet of primitives, the architecture uses this alphabet to aggregate and compose a taxonomy of strange follies, new words derived from an alien alphabet. Each folly is intentionally ambiguous, implying space and occupation offering unexpected and strange opportunities for unusual uses.
Rather than existing on a blank canvas, these follies are placed on a canvas together with building form. Therefore, they not only exist as objects, but ambiguously as structure, program and function, exposing and taking on the peculiarities of the follies. Sparking a newfound interaction and relationship between the building and its context, Architecture of Peculiarity reveals the peculiarities of architecture, as a means of revealing and celebrating the peculiarities of society.