Absurd machine : project on the National Mall

Abstract

America's symbols of governance, such as the ubiquitous state capitols and state capitol malls, are classically inspired European architecture and planning of reason and nature, adopted in America by Jefferson in 18th century as symbols of democratic institutions. These symbols are in contradiction to our evolving dialogue with democracy that are subject to laws of 'proper' use and extreme security. The National Mall as a symbol of democratic values, has been reduced to a synthetic image of stability built upon a preserved image that masks the underlying issues of a compromised territory of, unstable boundaries governed by ad-hoc laws, and privatized overtones that distort the otherwise democratic message embodied by these symbols of governance. Throughout American cities these same conditions are stifling otherwise democratic public spaces. This thesis articulates the representation of the last democratic space in America, post 9-11, as a critique based proposal that challenges our current and future negotiations with power in the built environment. Recognizing the challenge of a formal intervention upon a contradictory site, the National Mall will serve as the stage for testing a democratic space that communicates the asymmetrical relationships of public's dialogue with governance in 'public' spaces. While the Mall cannot be upheld as an egalitarian field, objects however can substantiate or infuse a democratic field within. This thesis justifies a form necessary to represent such a space, investigating compromised symbols that can be appropriated and redefined to provide functions and representation of conditions the National Mall distorts. The proposal infuses within the program responses to all major impositions of public spaces as a method of exposing the unstable conditions of democratic values residing on comprised fields. The purpose is not to render an ideal democratic space, but an independently operating machinelike space that highlights the context's incongruous relationships.