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Architecture & design studio  
in New York led by Sasha Topolnytska.

Ascension

2nd Place Winner of the Architectural Fairy Tales 2018 Competition by Blank Space
Media: ArchDaily, Smithsonian Magazine, Bustler, World Architecture

Speculative feminism  Ascension is a speculative ecofeminist fairy tale in the climate crisis which won 2nd place in the Architecture Fairy Tales 2018 Competition organized by Blank Space. 

“ 
I woke up lying on my back. My head hurt, and I felt dizzy. I pulled away a chair that was lying on my leg. I felt a terrible pain in my right shoulder. I was still in my apartment, or at least it looked like it, except it was upside down, and I was sitting on a ceiling. All of my furniture lay around me. I tried to think of the last thing I could remember before I woke up: I was sitting in my chair in the living room, reading the news on my laptop, and then – I remember nothing. I woke up. Confused, I stared at my room. It almost looked as if someone had rotated it 180 degrees. Is this why my shoulder hurts? Because I landed on it as I was falling down (up)? Nonsense. Is this why my coffee table is missing, and there's a giant hole in the floor? Or what was the ceiling the last time I remember? 
I got up and walked toward my window in search of any sign of explanation. As I looked out, I was stunned. I suddenly remembered the headline of the news I was reading right before it happened: "The World is Losing Its Gravity to Us!".

Conitnue reading below...
It has been 20 years since the day the world lost its gravity to us. I am one of the survivors that did not drift into space. I was one of the lucky ones who, on the day it happened, was inside of a building, a building that was grounded well enough into the Earth’s crust to not fly out into the sky. At first, it seemed that everything on Earth had lost its gravity, but as we began to look around, we realized that the trees, plants, rocks, and animals were still living on the Earth’s surface. After some time of grieving and sadness, what happened has finally started to settle in. We were punished. We were prohibited from living on the surface of this planet. It is almost as if the Earth shook itself free of all the unnecessary things: humans and all human-made.

We live in between, trying to survive every day with fear of falling into space.

Earth no longer pulls us toward itself. We can no longer step on its surface. To survive in this world, we had to figure out how to navigate the space that surrounded us. Since we could no longer easily walk out of our buildings without falling “up,” we had to invent a system of circulation. First, we used buildings and poles as a point of attachment for our circulation systems. Soon, we realized that buildings and man-made objects will eventually be ripped off the ground once more weight is added to them. We had to find an alternative way to move around. Trees belong to the surface of the Earth. Trees are rooted into the ground and do not lose their gravity. They still belonged. We started using trees as points of attachment for our circulation systems. There were not enough trees in the cities, so we started planting more. We planted trees on roads, sidewalks, and in every other place. Trees grew tall and wide. We had to be careful with the materials we selected for the walking surfaces of our circulation systems. Materials had to be permeable to avoid casting heavy shadows on the ground surface and light. Our survival depended on trees receiving enough sunlight. We also had to be strategic and careful about how much weight we put on the circulation systems. We had to walk in small groups so that the weight of us did not cause a tree to be ripped from the ground. We learned how to live in cities with no gravity. For some time… However, we soon realized that cities are no longer safe for us to live in.

Man and ground are no longer one.

The trees and plants started to populate city streets, spreading their roots deep into the ground. As a result of heavy vegetation it became unsafe to live in cities. Sidewalks and roads started to crack, break, detach, and shoot up into the sky, destroying our circulation systems. With time, buildings fell apart piece by piece and flew into space. It became unsafe to live in buildings within a city. We had to leave. We had to move to forests, away from towns and the deteriorating conditions. We planted more trees and moved further into the outskirts—planting, building, and relocating.

We live in a forest now. A forest that we cherish and preserve. The forest helps us stay here on Earth. Our houses are attached to tree trunks. Our homes are minimal and lightweight. We don’t own furniture, we don’t need any. The gravity is reversed for us; the sunlight enters our homes through the floor, and we have to adjust our homes accordingly. Every day, we wake up thankful for still being here. Every day, we hold on to Earth that no longer wants us, no longer wants to receive our bodies. Every day we hope. We hope that maybe someday, the Earth will forgive us.