The world’s strongest economies are based on the thankless work of countless people. Switzerland is no exception. In an attempt to reach self-sufficience in the production of human blood, the country’s third largest export, the Helvetic Confederation welcomes migrants fleeing from countries worst affected by the climate crisis in exchange for the precious liquid running through their veins. These welcome centres, hidden in the unassuming quietness of the Swiss Alps, double as something darker, as wealthy patrons are invited to stay in the luxurious hotel which adorns the facility.
Hidden amongst the mountains, a behemoth facility sits out of sight of the orderly landscape of rural Switzerland. In it, the country works hard to make itself richer, to climb further through the ranks despite its small size and equally small population. This project began as an exploration into the conditions that would allow Switzerland to share the massive wealth which it holds in its reserves and to become a world leader in welcoming those most affected by the countless ongoing humanitarian crises. But it soon became apparent that sharing for the sake of humanitarianism has never been the country’s aim - everything has a price. Amidst exploring the country and its main exports, clichès for which the country is famous such as coffee, tobacco, and chocolate, it became apparent that there is another product that the Swiss could be seriously interested in: blood. As the country’s third largest export, human and animal blood products are used in a wide variety of pharmaceutical processes.
The leap from this discovery to the creation of a facility where migrants are invited to live, providing refuge and safety in exchange for the liquid gold running through their veins, was a simple albeit dark one. But the aim of the Ianuarius Institute, named after the patron saint of blood transfusions, was never to seek to exploit the migrants, instead simply seeking to provide a service in exchange for their protection within the country’s borders. The duality of this facility becomes its striking unique feature. The hotel above never meets the facility below, despite their proximity. It is almost a visual representation of the foundations upon which wealth is often layed. The images below take the viewer on a journey throughout both aspects of the building, highlighting this duality.
THE GRAND HOTEL SOLFATARA
Named after the volcano on which Saint Ianuarius was beheaded, the hotel holds an ambiguous purpose: is it a place where the rich can perform blood transfusion with dubious health benefits, or is it simply a place fore relaxation, surrounded by the backdrop of the breathtaking Swiss Alps?
THE IANUARIUS INSTITUTE
Strategically placed beneath the hotel, out of view of the paying guests, the Institute represents the main centre of operations within the facility. It holds the residences for the incoming migrants, as well as the withdrawal facilities for which they are so coveted.
BRIEF RESPONSE
The brief asked to look to the near future, to the beginning of the new era driven by an intrinsic social change that will either make or break the future history of humanity. I concentrated on a dystopia just out of reach, one where human lives are valued as goods and where the rich keep benefiting to the detriment of those on whose back society is built. I explored numerous iterations of this project, starting with the most pressing issues currently plaguing the Earth and following that with an almost obsessive look at the things considered absolutely indispensable in our everyday life. The transition to a darker storyline was inevitable once one begins to consider the importance of wealth and the extremes those seeking it are willing to go to.
