Architektur markt/marked architecture : a new marketplace for Dresden

Abstract

This thesis is an investigation into the design and ideology of public space in the historical core of Dresden, more specifically, public space as it is related to history, commerce, and the monumental in architecture. The design of cities and buildings is always ideological, and the spaces within within which they sit and which they design- various physical, textual, electronic, media, and cyberspaces-are always marked and tainted by this ideology. In the West, the design of cities is also linked to violence, and their construction always also represents their destruction. An astute awareness of this fact can produce Architectures and Spaces that can communicate some of what is invisible in any ideological action and representation, as architecture is both. An essential part of this thesis is the research into the history of Dresden in Saxony in the former East Germany. After an intense investigation into the changing and evolving spatial and architectural makeup of the city, a site was chosen that was a locus for all the issues addressed. The final component of the thesis is a programmatic theme that revolves around functions of the market space and the monument in cities. Historically, they both serve many different functions for al l aspects of life in a city. The investigation will involve a design in which its conception, functions, and form are the direct result of and responses to the various types of spaces that cities occupy.