Building upon ruins : the evolution of an urban artifact from infrastructure to public space

Abstract

A thesis is about what architecture can be. In my thesis I propose that urban infrastructure built in the late nineteenth-century, can be the foundation for urban public space in the late twentieth-century. I propose that by exploring the value inherent in an existing structure, or fragment thereof, we can derive reasons to retain and perhaps add to that structure, all for the enrichment of the urban environment. The why is the value of the artifact. To explore the possible valuations of the urban artifact I have studied various theories of the ruin, monuments, and their role in urban culture. Writings by Alois Riegl, Aldo Rossi. David Lowenthal. Francoise Choay, Theodor Adorno, Manfredo Tafuri , and Giorgio Grassi. among others, have guided this exploration. The second part of the thesis is designed to test the proposition by linking the urban artifact with the present. This linkage would be achieved through the design of a new intervention which would be responsive to the contemporary situation. The programmatic ideas of theater and promenade were employed as both the methods of linkage, and generators of design.