Contemporary urban frontiers
Name
70272552-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
42.2 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
ec6c98fc84a152f3c1a4fb283124b3f6
Author(s)
Powell, Michael R. (Michael Randall)
Advisor(s)
Ann Pendleton-Jullian.
Date Issued
2006
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This thesis is a provocation; to the profession of architecture at large and every person who reads it. In reading this work, the manner in which our profession functions in society should be questioned. Architecture affords us the opportunity to conceive beyond the confines of formal design, tectonics, and technology. In it we may find the ability to significantly engage with culture, to comment, and to influence change. If we neglect this capacity, we are assured to continue on the path of a formalistic tradition set before us by so many others. This thesis studies the benign, the ubiquitous; considers it as a vehicle of change. In doing this, an alternative to the prevalent stylistic driven methodology of architecture is presented. The typology of retail presents itself as a beginning, a gestation point from which a new mode for consideration of design is born. Discovered is a new trajectory of thought, one capable of taking a common cultural circumstance and re-conceptualizing it as social progress. In this, a new paradigm for architecture is conceived. One less concerned with how something is made or what it represents, and more concerned with what architecture may accomplish on a variety of scales; from the individual, to the community, to culture as a whole.
Description
Thesis (M.Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 184-190).
Subjects
Architecture.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture
Terms of Use
M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
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