Urban soil is a matrix of compounds constructed by urban influences over time. Within each granulation is an archive of geological occurrences, a memory of the human activity. Millions of tons of dirt uphold the foundations of our collective urban existence, connecting each person to essential biological life, even if disjointed by asphalt or concrete. Steel, a compound of extracted and molded iron ore, is a composition for structure, similar to that of soil. As a pre-fabricated structure, it too embodies ephemerality through both assembly and its susceptibility to material corrosion. Both soil and steel respond to entropic forces of naturally occurring change. This project investigates the union of light and dense, impermanence and disintegration through a Homestead of Dirt Making. Through programmed spaces for climbing, sifting, sorting, splashing, and feeling, homesteaders themselves become natural forces of change in their context.
