[INSTITUTIONS] ARCH 552

Neal Robinson

STUDIO THEME

"TEXIT"_ The 3rd (or 4th) Inaugural Embassy for the New Republic of Texas

Sometimes driven by agents of force or frustration, at other times, the consequence of willfully seeking greener pastures, sovereignty, territorial distinction, and the demarcation of both ideas and ideology is often made muddy. This studio steps directly into that mud. We take up the seemingly fantastical but genuine proposition (HB 1359) for the secession of Texas from the United States of America. “TEXIT,” as it is currently known, is preliminarily scheduled for a public referendum in November 2023. We assume its passage and are charged with articulating the Inaugural (for the third, maybe fourth time) Embassy of the New Republic of Texas.

“Texas. It’s Like a Whole Other Country.” - 1990s marketing slogan

Having divorced Mexico in 1836 and thumbed the United States of America to join the Confederacy in 1861, Texas aspires to take its ball to play a different political and architectural game once again. Note, however: though all architecture is political, this studio is NOT about politics per se. It is, however, about an attempt to define brave spatial re(v/s)olution within foreign, possibly contested, hyperbolic conditions. Our strategies, therefore, seek new operatives and cunning new agency. Think technique driven propositions, collagenic constructs, murky authorships, and textual ecologies that conspire to produce (a) New R.O.T.

While we could have chosen a rival “country,” California or Florida, for example, for now, the Ideation of Texas is our star. Giddyup!