rootoftwo and daub: Center for Land Use Interpretation’s Wendover Residence Program

rootoftwo (John Marshall & Cezanne Charles) and daub (Karl Daubmann) have been selected for The Center for Land Use Interpretation’s Wendover Residence Program. The Center for Land Use Interpretation is a research and education organization dedicated to the increase and diffusion of information about how the nation’s lands are apportioned, utilized, and perceived. 

Wendover Airbase is an unused former World War II airfield situated in 3.5 million acres of desert, including the Great Salt Lake. Wendover was the home of the training program for the first atomic bombing missions carried out on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. rootoftwo and daub will use the residency this summer to conduct tests for a new project: B.O.L.T.S. (Bug Out Location/​Tactical Shelter). 

B.O.L.T.S. explores the aesthetics of privacy. B.O.L.T.S. prevents thermal, audio and visual detection and provokes new types of interaction in the form of a speculative doomsday shelter. B.O.L.T.S. is an architectural-scale ​“security blanket” for combating ubiquitous aerial surveillance (drones). B.O.L.T.S. makes reference to a quantity of fabric for purchase, a quick escape, and a locking mechanism and can be thought of as a safe shelter or hiding place for inhabitants. In the wake of recent natural disasters and human conflict and increasing speculation of existential threats, the work seeks to question the position of architecture in the context of contemporary issues of survival, security and privacy.