The dream is a lie, but the dreaming is true

Abstract

This thesis is about establishing the attributes of sense of place, rather than placelessness, through the observation of what makes a community have the qualities that it does. What is it in its physical, cultural, climatic and historical forms that affects building and spatial form that, through transformation can be used in creating an identity of the new place I am proposing. The thesis is an exploration and proposal for changing the way town extensions, as opposed to suburbs, are thought about in the California context. It is this changing of the way we think about ourselves and our surroundings that evolution comes about. The thesis is about examining the design of the spaces between buildings and the relationship of those spaces to the buildings. It is about the making and building of transition and access between the objects which define the space, and the space itself. The importance of these relationships and their form lies in the fact that the streets and the spaces of a community are the setting for the life of the community at all levels of interaction, from the public to the private realms, and from the understanding of the individuals relationship within the system of sizes, from the regional size down to the dwelling size. It is about the building of community.