Panya Clark Espinal

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, poster

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, poster

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, scale model

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, scale model

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, detail (scale model)

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, detail (scale model)

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, detail (scale model)

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, detail (scale model)

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, detail (scale model)

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, detail (scale model)

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, detail (scale model)

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, detail (scale model)

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, detail (scale model)

Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, 2005, detail (scale model)

Manchester Letherium
Ideas Competition, 2005

Collaborative Proposal

Design concept and scale model for the Manchester Letherium Ideas Competition, in collaboration with Crystal Mowry as Liminal Solutions.

The Manchester Letherium is a storage facility for unwanted cultural artifacts. It operates under a purely fictitious concept and history, as conceived by Rebecca Duclos and David K. Ross. On the basis of a purported architectural competition for designing the Letherium, Liminal Solutions proposed the Hydrological Letherium. Designed as a submerged structure, the building is intended to emphasize the proximity of the Rochdale Canal and prominence of water in the Letherium’s history. Visitors descend from ground level to enter the museum.

Features of the proposal include: Always Remember to Forget Water Tower Offering, an off-site outreach service allowing individuals to permanently deaccession their own ideas, objects and documents; and the Abacus™ Vitrinal Display and Collections Management System, which allows for a large volume of the Letherium’s collection to be visible to the public through a crystalline labyrinth of 120 vitrines that rise and fall from the storage facilities below.

The proposal was selected as one of the fifteen finalists in the competition and received the A.J. Samuels Prize for Most Beguiling Presentation.