Category: ARCH 793B : Gradaute Thesis Studio

A building’s core is traditionally defined as a centrally located, rectangular tube of reinforced concrete within a building which houses elevators, stairs, and utility services. It is a utilitarian device that does not actively participate in the design of a project, but is instead placed within one.

Traditional building cores are also rigidly consistent in their form as they rise through the levels of a structure; the cores within complex buildings are often the most simple and mundane elements.

What if this consistency were disrupted? How can a building core assume a more active role within a project? What if the core, and its shape, drove the design of a building and participated in its program?

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.

The demolition of buildings is a political act. As a matter of course, the purpose of demolition is nothing more than reconstructing and resituating the architecture of everyday life. Over the past three decades in China, cityscapes have undergone significant transformations. The new architecture has undoubtedly improved the quality of life yet has also resulted in increased demolition waste and social issues. The appearance of the surrounding ordinary buildings of the past has become banal, but they continue to be rooted in the idea of home and our individual and collective needs for space – a place to dwell. Reformation of the urbanscape and new architecture is inevitable. Reconciliation between destroying the old and creating the new requires contemplation over the past. Examination of precedents, use of recycled materials, and the retaining of the ordinary aesthetics can confront history and preserve culture. Breaking the entire convention is not imperative for building the new.

This thesis seeks to propose Representation as Project. A conceptual investigation into the way architects portray our work through drawings, images, and models that define and express the project. By investigating the current methodologies of various mediums in architectural representation and challenging their relationship within their process and meaning to the project, the practice, and the discipline. The goal is to represent representation; that is a translation of elements with the architects’ own interpretation for an aesthetic. Representation as technique rather than a result of them.