Abhishek Wagle

He hasn’t slept in days.
But I think he is close. He may almost be ready to leave.
I was able to really test him this year. It’s his 5th year in the Labyrinth. 5 years is a long time in a child’s life. Generally, they come and go much faster than this. Whether he has chosen to stay or just hasn’t found a way to let himself out I still am unsure of. But it seems now, finally, that he is more lost than ever.
I can feel him playing with the thought of whether to trust this place or not.
It’s easy when they completely trust me. I can get so much out of them. Those are the ones that make the best workers! Indeed, they often graduate not long after leaving the labyrinth. What a simple path for them. Their experience made it much more bearable as they work for a greater good.
But some, like him, are not so easy.
He questions himself; do I really know what is best for him, is it worth it to follow me blindly?
He may not make an excellent worker but there is a lot I can get from him. Such children are always interesting to work with. I am able to tackle disobedience especially well. There is a lot that can be extracted from it. It’s often these defiance that can be very beneficial to me.
He can't deny that he has learned everything here. He can't even remember the person he was before he came here, would he even want to. I gave him so much.
He fell in love last year.
I brought them both together and they immediately gravitated towards one another. It was quite rudimentary. He was so predictable.
But the change in him after meeting her was incredible.
The information I was getting from him was so great. Using passion to extract data is one of my favourite tools. And he freely gave it away, gave himself away. To her. To me.
I ended that this year. Forced them both on a separate path. It was even better than I thought.
He knew I was going to do this. Such a brilliant kid but so naïve.
Nonetheless, this is what I need from him. The outpour after the pain. The value of what he creates, how he reacts, where he goes
next. He is what I use to get my data, to sustain their need for stuff.
Maybe he is reaching his limit now.
He hasn’t slept in days.
I think a short break from this might be fine, let him cool off and then start again.
Maybe I'll keep him for a little while longer. I don’t mean him any harm. Of course.
It is all about the end goal. What I can get. But I always gauge where their limits lie. Make sure to only push them to their edges so that they can be brought back.
They can quit too. If they really want to quit. I don’t force these kids in here.
But they know if they quit there is nothing for them outside. It's a black mark.
So some give in and push through. Some fall in love with this place and stay. Some hate it vehemently (VE-A-MENT-LY).
But I love them all. I give them a new life. I give them stories and experiences, Show them wonders and horrors, and they always come back. Maybe to revisit the labyrinth, or in a distant simulation of their stored memories. They will never forget this place.
What is it?
The Labyrinth is a responsive building. Its goal is to create a journey for its users and successfully take them through this journey. Choices and mistakes made by the users cause the building to respond with changes and edit to this journey. The hope is to push these children to their furthest extents, and extract the creative by-products of the exercise. This process of exploiting the limits of the user is central to the rentist economy.
The models are representative of the building.
A variety of casting techniques, materials and methods were used to extract a form. The form responded to the mistakes and choices made by the architecture student by changing its shape and the voids created within. This relationship between Architect and model is representative of the user’s relationship with the building.
Architect and AI
In such a project it is the responsibility of the architect not to design the building but to create a set of parameters defined by knowledge, intuition, and research. The rules set by the architect then outline how the resulting spaces and forms are to be designed.
Is there a constant architectural team that works on this? Does the architect work with the programmer to create the labyrinth and then allow the labyrinth to continue his work? I think both may possibly exist simultaneously or successively.
What is the architecture?
The architecture is subjective. It’s a response to the individual that enters the space. It maybe breaks it down to its most basic part. The architecture is what is around a person.

What is it?
The Labyrinth is a responsive building. Its goal is to create a journey for its users and successfully take them through this journey. Choices and mistakes made by the users cause the building respond with changes and edited to this journey. The hope is to push these children to their furthest extents, and extract the creative by-products of the exercise. This process of exploiting the limits of the user is central to the rentist economy.

The models are representative of the building.
A variety of casting techniques, materials and methods were used to extract a form. The form responded to the mistakes and choices made by the architecture student by changing its shape and the voids created within. This relationship between Architect and model is representative of the user’s relationship with the building.

Architect and AI
In such a project it is the responsibility of the architect not to design the building but to create a set of parameters defined by knowledge, intuition, and research. The rules set by the architect then outline how the resulting spaces and forms are to be designed. Is there a constant architectural team that works on this? Does the architect work with the programmer to create the labyrinth and then allow the labyrinth to continue his work? I think both may possibly exist simultaneously or successively.

What is the architecture?
The architecture is subjective. It’s a response to the individual that enters the space. It maybe breaks it down to its most basic part. The architecture is what is around a person.

The role of the architect?

It might be suggested that the computer will be the architect of tomorrow or the person inputting all the parameters into the software. However, the project explores a narrative initially investigated by Beatriz Colomina around the Greek myth of Ariadne. Colomina argues that Ariadne, the daughter of Daedalus, was the first architect because she was able to use a ball of thread to decipher the labyrinth that her father built but could not navigate1. Doing so allowed Theseus to kill the Minotaur and return to her safely. Colomina suggests that the thread as a conceptual and theoretical device is the first architectural project.

Thus, in the labyrinth architecture lies at the hands of the individual entering the space. Each visitor creates their own architecture by navigating and experiencing the labyrinth in their own way. It is taken from the hands of the builder and finally given to the user.