FIELD SUPPORT VEHICLE: model for embodied architecture pedagogy

Abstract

For over a decade the Land Arts Support Vehicle was hunch and dream. An exponential possibility for field-based pedagogy. The creation of an adaptable all-terrain backcountry truck outfitted with essential infrastructure of mobile kitchen and field lab to propel the ongoing research of Land Arts of the American West at Texas Tech University Huckabee College of Architecture. In 2020 the embodied potential became active with a significant donation enabling the purchase of an F-350 4×4 Chassis Cab. This launched an active design-build process that continues beyond initial fabrication through perpetual testing and iterative refinement emanating from sustained immersive field exposure into the collective commons of the American West. Design-build process of the vehicle’s custom service body allows it to carry essential gear and provisions. Pushing beyond paradigms of recreational vehicles, this project’s ambition is aligned with scientific, and artistic, production vested in remote design-build field work. Think of a cross between inside-out food-truck and mobile construction workshop. Students and faculty worked collaboratively to design, fabricate, and evaluate the Support Vehicle to honor the ethos, aspirations, and complexities of the Land Arts program that is dedicated to expanding awareness of the intersection of human construction and the evolving nature of our planet.