THOMAS McLUCAS

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Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure | Altar of Contemporary Pleasure |

The project, designed as A Pilgrimage from Pig to Philosopher King, addresses the notion of an urban pleasure garden through Plato’s Republic. In Greek society cities were centred around holy sites. The 19th-century saw culture replace religion in much of western society, hence museums took the place of religious architecture as epitomised by the allusion of the Natural History Museum to a ‘cathedral of nature’. The project is perceived as an altar accommodating the pleasures/vices of the characters who degrade Plato’s perfect society into four imperfect societies and manifest themselves as debaucherous activities apparent in the English pleasure garden. The altar is split into two halves, a monument which sits above ground and its contemporary reading located below ground. A Platonic schedule of accommodation occupies both halves. These consist of a timocratic maze, oligarchic betting den, democratic speakers’ corner, tyrannical brothel, and archive for the philosopher king.

The project treats Albertopolis a ‘holy site’. It is designed to accommodate the mortal characters of Plato’s Republic (aspects of which exist in all of us) rather than the divinities of semester one. The architecture is imagined from relics of 18th century typologies from the English pleasure garden as well as relics from ancient Greek art and architecture. These relics serve as the physical embodiment of civilisations at a moment in time. This attitude towards the preservation of culture comes from an 18th&19th century antiquarian mindset, one which saw ancient art and mythology inform their ideals, easily seen when aligning ideals of beauty which we have inherited from that period with those of classical sculpture. This manifested itself architecturally in revival buildings, where historic aesthetics were adopted. My project borrows from this language and by contrasting classical and contemporary elements which instigates an anthropological study of how our culture and civilization has been informed by these ideals which were in turn informed by ancient culture which they imported as part of their expansionist programme.