Harvard Design Magazine #43

The more stuff we accumulate, the more space we need to store it all. Vast portions of the landscape are claimed and governed by spaces of storage, their maintenance, and the goods that move through them—or remain buried within them indefinitely. This issue of Harvard Design Magazine investigates and unpacks the contents, containers, and systems of storage that organize our world. Storage is the aggregation and containment of the material and immaterial stuff of culture; but also the safeguarding—or hoarding—of energy and tools for some imagined future purpose. How does all this stuff mask or overcompensate for economic and ecological bankruptcy? Is storage about greed or need? Storage, perhaps, is everything we can live without but insist on living with. “Shelf Life” explores what’s inside the box (shed, tank, urn, vault, crypt, crate, case, pot, bag, vat, morgue, safe, bin, archive, warehouse, cabinet, cellar, cemetery, depository, locker, freezer, landfill, library). Even as we attempt to reduce and recycle, the stuff that we dispose of also needs to be stored. Where do we put it? Our planet is now a saturated receptacle. This warehouse is full, and we’re all inside it.

Table of Contents

EDITOR’S NOTE

Socks and Stocks Jennifer Sigler

ARTIFACTS

Learning from the Steel Susan Nigra Snyder

Mammoth and Other Frozen Meats Hi’ilei Julia Hobart

A Civic Monument That Never Was Fabrizio Gallanti

Built Like a Skyscraper Craig Robertson

Catching Rain in Singapore Benjamin Leclair-Paquet

Grain Silos Go to India Ateya Khorakiwala

Information Material Jesse LeCavalier

Keeping It Fresh Melissa Cate Christ , Tomas Holderness, Daisy Tam

Marking Toxicity Robb Moss, Peter Galison

Meals, Ready to Throw Away Jesse Connuck Media Clutter Lynn Spigel

Slope to Drain Kate Orff

The Other City Samuel Medina

Trash at the Center of the Theater of the World

DESIGN EARTH

Use in Case of Emergency Only Jacob Lillemose

When Aalto Met Google Rory Hyde

COLUMNS

Crackers, Granite Mountain, and Future Memories Brian Evenson

Cupboard Love Emily King

Repeat Jonathan Olivares

Anxious about Stuff Martti Kalliala

Architecture without Content Kersten Geers

Carry, Conceal, Hide, Suggest, Cover Femke de Vries, Joke Robaard

Formatting the Modern Dream Anna-Maria Meister
Sant’Eustachio Barry Yourgrau

The Five Points of Cloud Architecture Antonio Furgiuele

The Temperamental Interior Zeina Koreitem, John May

ESSAYS

Before BILLY: A Brief History of the Bookcase Shannon Mattern

Storage Flows: Logistics as Urban Choreography Clare Lyster

La Esmeralda, and a Brief Interrogation of Prison Ship Memory Bryan Finoki
Gray Space Alex O’Briant

Hiding in Plain View Mark Mulligan

Hoarders of Magnitude: Super (and Not-So-Super-) Organisms Kiel Moe

Life in Storage Peggy Kamuf

Notes on More Andrew Holder

Objectives: The Architectural Potentials of Storage Megan Panzano

The Trove: On Vaults, Innards, and the Broad Collection Mimi Zeiger INSERT

In My Possession Maira Kalman

INTERVIEWS

Under the Bed Is a Dark, Cool Place Darra Goldstein, Christina E. Crawford

Designing the Void Anupama Kundoo, Ateya Khorakiwala

Talking Objects Martin Roth, Mohsen Mostafavi

Unité as White Cube Tom Burr, Alex Kitnick

PHOTO ESSAY

Assemblages Armin Linke PLUS

Lager: Two Storage Buildings for Ricola Jacques Herzog
Cryogenesis Rhonda Ganz

Fulfillment David Zielnicki