THE ALTAR OF CONTEMPORARY PLEASURE AND THE VALLEY OF THE REPUBLIC

by Thomas McLucas

The project designed as A Pilgrimage from Pig to Philosopher King addresses the notion of an urban pleasure garden through Plato’s Republic. In Greek society cities were centred around holy sites. The 19th-century saw culture replace religion in much of western society and hence museums took the place of religious architecture as epitomised by the allusion of the Natural History Museum to a ‘cathedral of nature’. The project is perceived as an altar accommodating the pleasures/vices of the characters who degrade Plato’s perfect society into four imperfect societies and manifest themselves as debaucherous activities apparent in the English pleasure garden. The altar is split into two halves, a monument which sits above ground and its contemporary reading located below ground. A Platonic schedule of accommodation occupies both halves. These consist of a timarchic maze, oligarchic betting den, democratic speakers’ corner, tyrannical brothel, and archive for the philosopher king.