The proposal for my project is to establish an Evangelical campus in Midland Texas. The project attempts to examine what architecture is without regulation, or maybe even a conscience. The campus would act as a faith based utopia and a series a film sets to broadcast Osteen's content to a greater audience. The project hopes to push the architecture extremes of the church and provide a critique.
Joel Osteen is the head pastor of Lakewood Church, it is the largest church in North America, housing 20 thousand people at one point in time. Osteen has a weekly viewership of 20 million people. The aesthetics of the church it purely based on the camera lens.
The site of my project is located in Midland Texas, the birthplace of George W bush and home to the highest number of billionaires in the United States, all fed by oil and bound to the evangelical faith.
Despite the immense amount of wealth the downtown core of midland is completely desolated. Almost all of the 250,000 residents live on the outskirts of town in close proximity to the oil fields.
These are 16 different interventions, which I designed for the downtown core of Midland. Each intervention is utilized as a point of pilgrimage and a film set. As well, each programmatically is based upon a component of the Lakewood and Joel Osteen ideology, such as the Theatre, The crying room, Joel’s residence, and the rehabilitation center. However, these interventions have different visceral perceptions through the 16x9 HD Television image in comparison to the humanistic observation.
Section of the Lakewood campus.
