Below our Terrestrial Horizon

Below our terrestrial horizon lies an unfathomable depth of mysterious content, it is the exclusive dwelling space for a myriad of living beings from our six kingdoms of life. Plants thrive here, their roots sprawling and intertwining, absorbent tendrils distributing nutrients to the superstructure of the plant body above. Animals burrow and tunnel, mycelia sprawl, infiltrate, and remediate soils, tectonic plates grind and slide, and after it falls, water disappears from the terrestrial surface into the arms of the underground systems. Humans, throughout history, have had a psychological tension with the above and the below, two worlds bifurcated by the terrestrial horizon. Tombs, hearths, places of worship and memorial, clandestine tunnels, shelters, networks of pits for mineral extraction, all architectures recorded in history to utilize the subterranean. In the contemporary urban environment, underground we find basements holding objects of the past, tattoo parlors, music clubs, bars, and urban infrastructure support systems, a sign of the cultural suppression of certain kinds of activation. Thresholds, in subterranean architecture, are responsible for the transition of the body from an oriented position where the faculties implore clues from the surroundings to inform the brain about our body’s position, to an unoriented position below the horizon where the deprivation of the normal clues is the rule and the celebration of our meeting with the subterranean transpires. These thresholds will be explored in this thesis as well as the tectonic collaboration of joints, and materials providing surfaces and apertures through which light, water, and air can pass. This thesis questions and explores the ability for subterranean spaces to educate the mind about the mysterious systems below the ground, and to deprive the mind of typical horizons and stimuli to accentuate the exquisite movements of the body.