In search of order : the transformation and re-use of midwestern grain elevators

Abstract

We filter the reality of the world through our perceptions, gaged by memories of past experience. It is the task of art, and therefore architecture, to bring us closer to the reality of the world--to somehow raise our level of awareness. Through the abstracted situations an artist creates, we are able to experience aspects of the world in a way that changes how we see the reality of 'things'. To the non-native, Iowa is experienced mainly by driving across it on Interstate 80 on the way to Chicago or somewhere else. It appears (like its surrounding neighbors) as merely flat farmland, absent of landmarks achieving definition only through the use of something applied and unwavering--the one mile square grid. But, in fact, Iowa is a place layered with a multitude of more subtle orders. The object of this thesis is to define these existing orders by describing the patterns forming layers that distinguish Iowa as a place. Places are locations with a particular way of life reflected in the built environment which expresses the inhabitants' relationship to the world. These understandings will then be used to guide the transformation of this existing order into a new logic. The architectural project involves looking at a particular building type--the farmer's co-op elevator--to determine its formal qualities and transform it into an alternative use type without diminishing the physical or social patterns of structure which presently order the place.