Lantern Journal 
by Matt Teismann
The Garden of Indolence is an entry for the Pruitt-Igoe Now competition in 2012.
Despite having grown up in St. Louis, I first became aware of the story of the Pruitt-Igoe housing projects when I was a student in architecture school. I was immediately drawn to it. Since the destruction of the buildings four decades ago, a reversion to the natural has taken place, further enhancing the unique and special qualities of the site; there is something quite beautiful, yet eerie, in the stillness that remains. The site now has potential to release that sublimity, bringing hope to the land. Pruitt-Igoe immediately inspired me, not as a piece of architecture, but rather as a story of its evolution through intentions and outcomes and for its potential new beginnings.
Matt Teismann received a Bachelors of Architecture from Kansas State University in 2007 and has since worked in New York, Cleveland, and Ireland. In 2010 he started LIONarchitecture with Charles Vega. Matt has studied and lectured in the United States and Europe, and his work includes ‘Futureless’, and the exhibited works ‘Urban Green-House Project’ and ‘I am a Pagan.’