This short documentary explores Maison de Cartes (House of Cards), a sculptural architectural installation by Gordon Kipping (M.Arch ’95), exhibited at the SCI-Arc Gallery. Responding to the climate crisis, Kipping re-imagines modernist modular construction through the use of mass timber, specifically cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glue-laminated (glulam) beams, as a renewable and low-carbon alternative to concrete and steel.

The film documents a seemingly fragile yet conceptually robust fragment that proposes a structural system of stacked CLT walls and slabs, supporting a universally accessible ramp. Augmented reality technology allows viewers to perceive the fragment as part of a larger architectural whole, hovering between physical and digital space.

To demonstrate its mutability, Maison de Cartes is taken through a geometric progression to become the Hocken House, a residential project currently under development by Gordon Kipping Architects in Toronto, Canada. The Maison de Cartes fragment is to have a second life and support another crisis. The mass timber fragment upon disassembly is reassembled into a cube which is redeployed to provide emergency transitional shelter on an encampment site of the un-housed.

Crew Credits –

Production:
SCI-Arc Channel Creator and Executive Producer - Hernán Díaz Alonso
SCI-Arc Channel Executive Producer - Reza Monahan
SCI-Arc Channel Creative Director - William Virgil
Directors of Photography - H. Walker Sayen
B Camera - Michael Rice
Drone Operator - Phil Logan
AR Technician - Ade Ayoade

Post-Production:
Editors - Michael Rice/Reza Monahan

Additional Images and Video Provided by Gordon Kipping and Alina Arustamyan.

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