Objects, subjects, and [architectural] spaces can each be defined as repositories, where their intrinsic nature to collect and store either things, identities, or histories manifest a physical environment of overlapping and competing self-hoods. Where consumerism has always been credited with our over-consumption of objects, this thesis explores the critical role of architectural repositories in reinforcing our accumulation. With a specific focus on the dwelling and the landfill, comes a realization that the objects these repositories house curate the entirety of the human experience towards a non-confrontational existence distorted by a material culture.

This “non-confrontation” specifically avoids cognitive frictions within the subject (example: vanity, guilt, greed), and physical frictions as a result of the subject (example: trash accumulation, global warming, depleting natural resources). This thesis proceeds as a thought experiment, considering the social, psychological, and architectural responses in a confrontational scenario where each individual must keep every object they accumulate.

In this application, the accepted hiddens become public exhibition, unveiling the internal ego of the subject, and the external egoisms of the body of subject(s). As a confrontation itself, this thesis approaches the obscured as a welcome display, urging subjects to consider the void their objects are filling, and challenging architecture to reconsider the typologically dedicated spaces within which housed objects take precedent over the subject who occupies them.

As a result, the private characteristics of the existing dwelling become the landfill of the subject, and the extension of the dwelling to accommodate the accumulation becomes a form of public exposition. Where objects in museums and archives are currently deemed valuable, this thesis questions the perception of value and aims to shift it towards objects in storage units and landfills. In turn, the ignored frictions within subjects will be unavoidable, and the physical aftermath of the subject’s narcissism will be un-curated. This will consign the unconfronted objects in landfills to new life — one of being viewed in their raw form as a public manifestation of the unconfronted self.