These three meter wide by three meter long rooms were part of a series of works built by Laura Stargala in 2019. They are located in Ithaca, New York, within a stream, a meadow, and a rock formation. 

 

Wanting a physical engagement with direct resources, Laura began building with what was available to her. Although no more than a meter tall in height, these outlines of rooms begin to resemble the footprint of an inhabitable space.

 

Similar to Sol Le Witt’s instructions for art, the task of building a three meter by three meter room out of readily available materials could be done anywhere by anyone. The result would be a space that emerges from its surroundings and is limited by the characteristics of the available materials. These qualities would then influence the height, structure, and relationship of the room to its surroundings.

 

The first one was a Room in the Field. The room was cut into a meadow with very tall grass. The room had an entrance and an inhabitable space. As weeks went by the room began to change as new vegetation grew on the floor of the room. Eventually, as weeks and months went by, it disappeared all together.

 

The second was a Room in the Stream. The interior room was water, the boundaries stone. Stones were moved to create a space. With time this room too would fall into itself and return to a pattern established by the water and seasons, rain and frost.

 

Third was a Room in the Stone. This room was built in a rock formation from the surrounding slate.

 

These rooms created tactile relationships between the author and her context. They were the beginning seeds of an investigation of hyper-proximal rearrangements, of a dialogue with pragmatic regionalism, and gesture towards a poetic environmental activism. This project was the beginnings of architecture 'of here'.