Howard Greisdorf, Orbiting Condominium

I have always believed, contrary to popular opinion, that “art is in the eye of its creator.” Whether others consider the work to be artistic has mostly been a commercial enterprise depending on the “quantity of others”. With that said, my work over the past 80 plus years has included pen and pencil drawings, paper-mâché, ceramics, jewelry, essays, paintings, acrylic skins, miscellaneous constructions, and published works. The mission has always been to please my own interests at a particular point in time. This current series of painted wood constructions stems from my personal outlook on the future of mankind and its basic preference for living and working in rectangular spaces. Historically, that premise has proven to be accurate considering the efficiency and functionality of rectangular spaces, the psychological comfort provided through stability and predictability, construction practicality, ease of navigation that offers clear boundaries, and the influence of architectural factors that dictate a sense of normalcy through the use of squares and rectangles. I have taken that historical premise and projected it into a future where earthly habitation may no longer be sustainable as we know it. With the advent of increasing threats from pollution, climate change, uncontrollable pandemics, and nuclear holocaust, continued existence for homo sapiens, as we know the species today, may need to rethink its earth-based living habits and/or find it necessary to settle elsewhere in the universe. Scholars, already attuned to the existing and potential threats, are starting to suggest the need for an exodus from the planet by the year 3000. This collection represents an architectural vision of that habitable future. Each maquette consists of a stationary sustainability port (black) purposed for supplying clean air, clean water, power generation, and waste recycling to an assembly of attached cubes (red). Each cube, designed for public space, living space, offices, shops, classrooms, laboratories, medical or manufacturing space, will be transportable and designed to attach or detach from another cube and/or a sustainability port. Whether stationary or in orbit, each structure will be self-sustaining and reconfigurable as needed to support the inhabitants. The title of each maquette speaks for itself, whimsical as that may be.