Writing situated experiences and messy encounters: An exploration of the Earth through dust

This contribution presents the creative–critical short story ‘The Distance of the Earth’ and an accompanying article offering an explanatory interdisciplinary framework. These propose a representational tool for architectural narratives offering an authentic and accessible practice of architecture. By bridging the medium of the architectural drawing as a visual representation and auto-fiction as a form of creative writing the project builds a polemic on the often visual culture within the architectural practice. The article argues that through writing, the designer can remain closer to the designed site. The short story ‘The Distance of the Earth’ becomes an exploration of the Earth through dust, proving that nature has no defined representation or scale but is (re-)produced in a practice where the visual world dominates. The story navigates towards a new ethic of dirtiness, fluidity, death and danger while reminding us that air is not invisible.