The A.D.I.E.U. (Architectural Developments In Escape Units) project is initiated by KIT in 1999 in Melbourne, Australia. Working with a team of engineers, architects and a NASA scientist, KIT undertakes research into developing an escape module for high-rise buildings, pre 9/11. The idea is to produce a functioning module which will jettison from a building when its structural integrity is compromised and to use airbag technology to cushion its landing.

The A.D.I.E.U. Working Archive is created to document the research, ideas and plans for the construction of the ‘escape module.’ The component of the archive, which is installed in galleries, consists of 20 prints on watercolour paper, each 90 x 70cms in size. There are two series of 10 images within the archive. The first set of 10 images comprises of photographs of rooftops from buildings around the world. Differing rooftops offer various options and potential installation formats for an A.D.I.E.U. escape unit. The photographs are taken as sketches and are subsequently manipulated in ‘Photoshop’ so that the background context is erased and replaced with the colour grey, rendering the rooftops as floating vistas in space.

The second set of images is ten 3D ‘AutoCad’ renderings of ideas for how an escape unit might leave a building. Thus there are images of the module hovering, jumping (flea like), and travelling through a building core to a subterranean level beneath the building given as examples.

A.D.I.E.U. Working Archive exhibits at the following galleries -

2005   Gallery 44: Centre for Contemporary Photography (Toronto, Canada)
2003   Axe Néo 7 (Gatineau, Canada)
2001   Seven Degrees Media Centre (Laguna Beach, USA)
2000   RMIT Project Space (Melbourne, Australia)
1999   Artcite (Windsor, Canada)
           The Melbourne Biennial (Melbourne, Australia)