Oculi
The field of elevated oculi, made from 40-year-old metal grain bins procured from a farm in Delphos, Ohio, frames unobstructed view of the sky while tracking the path of the sun with a range of shadow patterns. Artifacts of American agro-industrial age, these bins have been repurposed in ways not unlike how medieval inhabitants of Rome reoccupied the remains of the Ancient Empire. The grain bin is our contemporary spolia — at once a resource for the future, a contemplation on the past, and a connection between urban and rural life.
Oculi is a winning project of the annual City of Dreams competition on Governors Island in NYC hosted by FIGMENT, the Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA) of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY), and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY) on Governors Island in NYC. It is now re-installed at ArtOmi.
Plan (6-petal flower)
Original grain silos during dis-assembly
Dis-assembled silo panels
Prototype
Assembly
Detail of foundation
Unistrut patent
Model (cardboard)
Model (metal)
Grain bin patent
Additional Project Information
Installed at Governors Island, NYC 2018-2019 and at ArtOmi, Ghent, NY 2019-Present
Constructed of used metal grain bins and Unistrut, approx. 60’x20’x’20’
Constructed of used metal grain bins and Unistrut, approx. 60’x20’x’20’
Design Team
Aleksandr Mergold, A+M - project director
Jason Austin, A+M
Scott Hughes, Silman
Christopher Earls, Cornell CEE
Jason Austin, A+M
Scott Hughes, Silman
Christopher Earls, Cornell CEE
Collaborator
Maria Park, Cornell AAP
Construction
Glenn Miller & Ben Malone, Miller-Tilling
Bill Haines, Haines Construction
Bill Haines, Haines Construction
Cornell University student assistants
Curtis Ho, Kate Huffman, Eric Lee, Libby Rosa, Anna Warfield, Emma Boudreau, Sarah Bujnowski, Isabel Branas, Vaharan Elavia, Ami Kurosaki, Jason Lin, Xiaoxue Ma, Hafsa Muhammad, Sasson Rafailov, Jiacheng Xu, Edward Aguilera-Pérez, Molly Ma, Cait McCarthy, Michael Paraszak, Reuben Posada, Lawson Spencer, Jordan Young, Jeniffer Carmona, Adriana Contarino, Freddo Daneshvaran, Allexxus Farley-Thomas, Jahoon Kwon, Riana Tan, George Tsourounakis, Hyun-Ji Yang
Organizations & Companies
FIGMENT, Trust for Governors Island, AIA New York Chapter, ENYA, SEAoNY, ArtOmi, Cornell University (Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, College of Architecture, Art and Planning, Department of Art, Department of Architecture, College of Engineering, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering), Atkore International / Unistrut, Silman
Photography
Zachary Tyler Newton, Anton Kisselgoff, Alon Koppel, Aleksandr Mergold
