Thesis project captures grain elevators as sites of material agency

Her thesis, Millimeter of Space, approached Buffalo's Perot Grain Elevator and Malt House as ruins in a post-industrial landscape.

Using the exterior surfaces of each structure - untouched by humans since their closure decades ago - as a record of natural material transformation, Dziama captures the surface deterioration through a series of hyperphysical castings fabricated from latex. Once removed, the castings form sheets that reveal the physical traces of continuously changing environmental conditions. As records of a surface that has evolved over time, the architectural films or skins provoke consideration of the junction between the natural and human made; the aesthetics of the aged surface and important role it plays as a maker of form. 

Her research was co-directed by UB architecture faculty members Georg Rafailidis and Nicholas Bruscia and advised by Stephanie Davidson as a member of her thesis committee.  

According to Dziama, the topography of this decaying, industrial architecture showcases materials as vulnerable embodiments of the past, subject to the threat of time. In this case, time becomes an important architectural element of these spaces and heightens our awareness about the lifespan of building as moving projects in a successive flow of transformations.

Her work was recently installed as part of the Buffalo Arts Studio Summer Solstice event at Silo City. The sheets were hung inside the Perot Grain Elevator, acting as "curtains" to guide circulation and allow visitors to experience a multitude of vantage points as they moved through the space. Dziama says her aim was to encourage the viewer to reexamine their own relationship with the site and the history it represents.

Dziama is clear about her intent. She is not trying to solve a problem. She is not exploring practical applications of her research. Rather, Dziama says she is “enamored” of the colors and textures of these surfaces and interested in the processes that created them. Her thesis quotes historian Cyril Stanley Smith: "Discovery requires aesthetically-motivated curiosity, not logic, for new things can acquire validity only by interaction in an environment that has yet to be." Still, her work, in the words of her thesis committee co-chair Nicholas Bruscia at a public critique last December, is “fundamental architecture.”

Dziama says her upbringing has had a great effect on her work. Raised by a Filipino mother and a Ukrainian-American father, Dziama says she is acutely aware of cultural diversity. Today she is a member of the Filipino-American Association of Western New York where she works to promote cultural awareness and support an environment that welcomes diversity. Says Dziama: "The more perspectives that are applied to a design problem, the more enriching the experience of a space is for everybody."