Performing in the landscape : a community theater for Marblehead, Massachusetts

Abstract

This thesis is an investigation of our perception of place and what constitutes our experience of place. It is a journey through a multitude of scales: region, site and individual. Architecture, in this sense, is the phenomonological perspective of placemaking and relationship between human and environment which is oft boundary, but many times a threshold. Stemming from a criticism of modern architecture that is placeless, this thesis is less about poor examples and more about question of process. How does one begin to understand the lands and begin to define a place within the landscape? How does the individual relate to the built environment within the natural The thesis, then, defines the individual as the source from which understanding is manifested specifically through sensory perception and place making. The project is a performance space for Marblehead, a town whose sense of place is deeply embedded within the history of New England. The project is located on the waterfront, where the natural characteristics of the tides and the seasons perform continuously, subtly altering the nature of the site. This thesis is organized in three parts. The first is a description of the region. the particular site, and the program within that site. The second is a construct of ideas which are related to experience and the forming of our understanding place. The third part is a journey through the site and project, proposing a method through which we may begin to understand the phenomonology of perception and the understanding of place through the design process.