Towers Silos Barns

My thesis re-examines the container through iterative derivations from three major agricultural typologies (silo, barn, water tower) to explore the extent of which a typology can stretch before it engenders a new typology altogether. The derivative process employs the silhouette as a signifier of these instruments, utilizing iconic agricultural forms within rural, urban, and quasi-rural aggregates. These translations prove that the boundaries applied to where vernacular architecture can and cannot exist is an arbitrary condition; vernacular architecture has the capacity to respond to shifting contexts, maintaining its identity within the urban complex. Traditionally, agricultural ornament was derived from the functional qualities of the object as opposed to aesthetic character, creating typologies iconic for their simplicity, purposefulness, and air of industrialism. By adapting the characteristics of these space-containing typologies into urban zones, we re-brand the connotation of the rural vernacular and the bounds within which it exists.