Where a project is cited no longer relies on an exploration of the landscape, or an attempt to redefine the coordinates of the places we deem hospitable. Architecture exists in a world dominated by the definitive mapping of site. We rely on buildings to house our lifestyles, and construct ubiquitous environments for people to live in.
Architecture did not always exist in this way. A portion of mankind once relied on non-permanent buildings, caves, windscreens, huts, tents, bivouacs, yurts, and igloos, coupled with a design strategy that was derived from portability, lightness, and flexibility; defining the essence of shelter. Perhaps this is the barest form in which architecture can exist.
The Andes are considered the longest mountain range on earth, and they have the ability to consistently produce extreme and erratic climate conditions. Aconcagua sits 22,841 ft. (6,962 m) above sea level, making it the highest mountain in the Andes and Western Hemisphere; determining it a pinnacle site to work with extreme climates. In five weeks, I am traveling to Aconcagua to live in these conditions, and use the tent that I have built as my shelter and means of survival. For me this is a practice that demands the architect’s inhabitation and design accountability, in an attempt to formulate a relationship with the spaces we create and places we declare sited.
Photo Source: Robert Castillo / Date: 1.6.2012 : 1802 / Location: Mt Aconcagua
inhabitable 
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