Capstone Year
13,885, Nuclear Warhead Columbarium, White Sands, NM USA, 2024. For our final presentation in Professor Jesús Robles’s Last Nuclear Bomb Memorial studio, Andy Demetriou and I proposed a series of underground plaster-cast megastructures buried beneath the dunes of White Sands National Monument. Visitors would enter through a spiraling ramp, reminiscent of a missile silo, descending to a central reflection pond that connects to individual chambers, one for each nuclear-armed nation. Above each domed chamber, light apertures embedded in the ceiling stretch upward through the sand, forming sculptural skylights visible from miles away. The number and size of these skylights correspond to each nation's nuclear stockpile, making the stark differences between countries like Russia and Pakistan immediately clear. The project invited reflection on the global scale of nuclear armament and the threat of self-destruction. It was a deeply conceptual and process-focused collaboration, and working with Andy made the experience especially meaningful.