The lives of many internally displaced individuals (IDP) in Georgia are conditioned by a state of permanent impermanence. The Hotel “Kartli” is one of many examples of a Soviet era sanatorium converted into temporary IDP housing. With limited resources, the residents had to architecturally alter the sanatorium rooms to create more suitable living areas. Responding to this social and spatial condition, we produced a speculative drawing set that superimposes Hotel “Kartli’s” past and present. Our intent is twofold: to register the labor and work put forth by Hotel “Kartli’s” current residents in converting the sanatorium into living spaces, and to challenge the instructional nature of the architectural document.

The architectural drawing set, coupled with 3D digital files, are offered as a way to preserve the memory of Hotel “Kartli” in a virtual space, thereby making visible this state of permanent impermanence. Autobiographical in nature, the drawing set and 3D model will form the beginning of an archive on the “Kartli” Sanatorium and its residents.

ABOUT US

DoZa is a design practice founded by Maria Espinoza and Shirley (Dongwei) Chen that is currently based in the United States.

Maria is a graduate of the MArch II degree program at Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD). While at the GSD she received the Faculty Design Award for significant achievement throughout the program’s design sequence. Maria received her undergraduate degree from Tulane University in New Orleans. In her final year she was awarded the Outstanding Thesis Award for her project titled “Architectural Veracities: Confronting the American Symbols of Democracy.” She was also awarded the John William Lawrence Research Fellowship during her fourth year of study.

Shirley is currently pursuing a post-professional M.Arch degree at Princeton University School of Architecture. Prior to Princeton, she worked as an architectural designer in San Francisco, California. Shirely received her undergraudate degree from Tulane University, where she was awarded the John William Lawrence Memorial Medal and Malcolm W. Heard Research Travel Fellowship. Shirley has contributed to several books and publications, including Utzonia: From / To Denmark with Love, Yale Paprika!, Princeton Tortoise and theCharrette.

ABOUT TAB 2022

The main theme of the biennial this year is  - "What's next?," exploring space and architecture in the context of urban and social temporality: the political and economic conditions, chain of events that leave citizens without a sense of stability and a coherent vision of the future; whereas buildings, structures, and spaces are analyzed in terms of time instead of physical dimensions and form.