1.

Habitacles are places which are more suited for being perceived or explored, rather than for being permanently lived in. QUBE is an habitacle. It is neither reality show scenery, nor an eternal confessional, and shouldn’t be used 24/7.

2.

USER’s body cannot stay there forever. But USER’s mind can. In this sense, QUBE indeed could be inhabited. In fact, it already is.

3.

QUBE can be seen as a nucleus creating possibilities, being a container for architectural DNA. Codes and references are hidden in its configuration, proportions, and materials. Each part can be seen as a reflection of something else, through emulation or analogy, partial synchronization or synchronization of parts.

4.

Being less a physical place than a metaphysical puzzle, QUBE employs algorithms torn from both personal and universal history. USER should not be surprised to see ghosts of USER’s own architectural past (for example, a house USER lived in or saw as a child). QUBE behaves both like a portrait and a self-portrait, containing bits/beats of autobiographical information (0,008 to 2,3%). This being the case, all possible references, both factual and fictional, should be mobilized for its proper functioning.

5.

QUBE can be thought of as a pavilion, since it is indeed a temporary building constructed for exhibition purposes. This validates activating the Van der Rohe/Barcelona Pavilion reference, in which the pavilion, instead of hosting an exhibition, becomes the exhibition itself, thus erasing the difference between the container and the contained. The Barcelona Pavilion was also made of green marble. And was highly “meta” as well.**

6.

Before using QUBE, USER should remember that through the centuries the marble used in temples became thinner both physically (when the marble blocks were replaced by tiles to simulate the former) or ideologically (when the marble was ‘simply’ painted, faking the material and creating the environment for a more complete simulation). In the digital era, in which the level of virtuality has dramatically increased, marble has become even thinner (approx. 2 mm in depth).

7.

The golden frescoes should be seen as icons as they a) are codified and connoted, b) partly illustrate the cult of entropy, c) create a simulacrum in which signifier and signified make one. If USER chooses a good point of view, the frescoes are transformed into stained glass windows, even if their tracery is minimal. In early modernism, gothic became art deco. In postmodernism, with computer and phone screens becoming mostly rectangular, windows, too, have simpler gridded frames. They become easier to place a grid on.

8.

QUBE is a not only a time machine (see section 3 and 4) but also a portal, an elevator moving at so fast a speed that the abstract landscape seen out of the golden windows decomposes even more, stretching out in stripes. QUBE’s ultimate function is to achieve a metaphysical state of being, characterized by epoché, or the suspension of all judgment. So why not a suspension in general?***

9.

Just like Dorothy, USER is advised to « buckle USER’s seatbelt » and enjoy the trip.