WHAT IF: Trump Enhances His Legacy of Make-Believe for Humanity

 

Program: Trump's Presidential Library

Tutor: CJ Lim, Simon Dickens

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Would perceptions alter if it was possible to instill a compelling narrative of moral, social, and environmental responsibilities into large-scale architecture and infrastructure, as these are often misunderstood as being vacuous acts of hubris? 

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Perhaps the beauty of architecture is the careful balance of contradictions and paradoxes, as in Donald Trump’s Presidential Library. Elegantly poised under the blazing Californian sunshine in the fake landscape of the Hollywood Reservoir, the linear iceberg-looking building is framed around the scaremongering tale of the imminent desertification of North America in JG Ballard’s Hello America (1981). 

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While the building appears solid, the majority is porous, naturally ventilated, and reveals a profound hope for lightness and enlightenment. The result is the creation of fluid and democratic spaces where people can connect with the natural environment. 

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This is a surreal portrayal of Trump, a climate change denier, manipulating potential extreme weather to secure his own legacy. Or, is this dichotomy a physical manifestation of humanitarian hope in the readers’ subconscious?