Soft Unsealing is a 9-channel video installation produced by [Applied] Foreign Affairs for the 11th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, themed Nature of Hope (July to October 2024). This piece presents AFA's Tamale Old Airfield project through nine distinct lenses, each offering a specific focus and perspective on the research and design process.
The installation emphasizes the equal importance of each lens and topic in shaping the project, reflecting the non-linear and fragmentary nature of the creative process. The narrative remains fluid and evolving, with the video fragments varying in length, mirroring the dynamic and ever-changing journey of the project.
01 Project narrative (status Nov 2023): From first encounters, to onsite documentation, applied research, interspecies investigations, and towards communal events, zoning, and design proposals
02 From the archives: British colonial Power projected the Tamale Airport in the 1920’s
03 Seasonal and scalar aerial site documentation (2022-2023): filming over the runway in the dry and rainy seasons to understand its characteristics from afar and close by
04 Soil (2024) and runway surface samples (~1927; 2023): collecting, scanning, analyzing material qualities to understand their potential for the transformation and reuse
05 Interspecies appropriations (2023): Goats, cows, and birds resting or trespassing; lichen and vegetation softly unsealing the airfield
06 Human stakeholders (March 2024): In conversation with local traditional authorities and municipality members
07 Applied research (2022-2023): extensive onsite stays and 1:1 intervening to read and understand the site and its environmental and socio-cultural contexts
08 Tree investigations (February 2024): Engaging with special trees in Ghana´s Mole National Park, Tamale´s inner-urban forests, and with tree transplanting at EBBEN, NL
09 Prototyping material compositions (February 2024): 1:1 testing of the topographical landscape design of the “communal runway zone” with second-hand tires and laterite
10 Soundscape Tamale Old Airfield (Recording 2022-2023)
CREDITS
Raw material: [Applied] Foreign Affairs
01-08 Source: [A]FA; Author video: Daniil Zhiltsov
09 Source: [A]FA Author video: Weichen Zhou
10 Recordings: Baerbel Mueller; Composition: Linus Miller
