San Rocco 1 - Islands - editorial

An island is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. An island is any object lost in an endless extension of a uniform ele- ment. As such, the island is isolated. The island is by definition remote, separated, intimately alternative. The island is elsewhere. Islands can be natural or artificial: atolls, rocks, volcanos, oases, spaceships, oil rigs, carriers. In his L’île déserte, Gilles Deleuze divides islands into the oceanic and the continental. Oceanic ones are “originary, essential islands”. Continental ones are “accidental, derivative islands”. San Rocco 1 will try to use oceanic and continental as categories to explore the possibility of architectural islands, either literally or by analogy.