Nostalgia and the idea of urban ruin

Abstract

An archetype for nostalgia withholds moments, suspending time in a state between memory and anticipation. Gravity plays an essential role in creating time in architecture: it gives physicality to the transience, allows time to be experienced with one's senses and imagination. In that sense, time is neither metaphorical and prescriptive, but physical and personal. Using the physical context of Fort Point Channel as the stimulus for intellectual thinking, the thesis project strives to discover how the idea of an urban ruin can inspire new forms of spatial-temporal experience. The physical and spiritual qualities of the Greek temples, in particular the Doric Order, are analyzed in order to understand the fundamentals in architecture such as Absence, Gravity and the Order of space and matter. Through the resurrection of time and memory in architecture, the new archetype allows one to become closer in touch with his senses, thus finding purpose to his own existence.