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TOOLS & MASKS
University of Pennsylvania: Master of Architecture
Graduate Thesis
Advisers: Andrew Saunders, David Leatherbarrow
By masking the functional tool, the hammer, we encounter it as more than equipment. The hammer can then be read beyond its usability and can take on new meanings, challenging Heidegger's definition of tool-being. Strategies of masking can be used to break from Functionalism, allowing an object to emerge from its use and continue to develop beyond its function.
"...the less we just stare a the hammer-thing, and the more we seize hold of it and use it, the more primordial does our relationship to it become, and the more unwieldy it is encountered as that which it is - as equipment." - Heidegger
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