Architectural journeying : the design investigation of articulated in-betweens

Abstract

Perhaps the easiest way to comprehend the complexity of our built and natural landscape is to draw an example from common experience. As ambulatory beings we must all move from one place to another. Architects, too, must travel a distance, but in a more abstract manner; from the idea to the design to its execution. Yet a journey is not just getting there; for the space which surrounds and fills our experience both defines and acts as the log of that movement. A journey, therefore, seems a fitting metaphor for an exploration of the wider implications of how built form might help us get from here to there. and understand the quality of in-betweens as well. From a cross-country journey , to the path we travel between rooms, there lie many clues to inform the way we design. The journeys in this thesis are both figurative and literal. Viewed as life-giving connections for all arrivals and departures, they take on a more positive definition than the void between objects. Within their contextual field they become a kind of built cytoplasm, or the living substance which helps structure the whole of our perceptive universe. "Journeying" is my way to study a larger issue, that of the in-between regions of built landscape. The concept of articulated in-betweens acts as a vehicle to make positive association with space, in a culture that puts a premium on objects and equates the in-between with emptiness. In this study I have momentarily turned the tables on a casual view of in-betweens, as if I were held throughly accountable for all "left-over" space. The articulation of in-betweens is the primary objective. While the written expression of the journey process and ideology of in-betweens has been building with my experience and plays an important role, the mos t substantial effort in the thesis has gone into the actual design study. My investigation graphically documents the processes of designing the path of one journey and several of its sub-journeys. Each sub-journey is contained within the limits of the larger path yet focuses on the in-betweens with the same intensity. As a context for the investigation I have used a small section of an urban residential and commercial area in Boston.