Thesis Proposal for undergraduate thesis | Thesis Architecture

“Understanding the place of the body in the ‘deconstructive’ thought of space-making”

INTRODUCTION

In the history of the architectural discourse, starting from the Roman architect-engineer

Vitruvius who wrote De architectura in the 1st century AD, to the Italian architect Alberti who

re-interpreted Vitruvius’ laid down treaties in the 15th century at the onset of Renaissance, to the

industrialised era where the truth in the substance of the historical text in architecture was put to test

and challenged, to modernism, postmodernism and the present time— one thing that has been

discussed and explored in all these eras is the relationship between the human body and

architecture. This correlation has been made with both abstract as well as physical aspects of the

bodies. The text that dealt with this relationship was greatly influenced by the theologies of different

religions that were being born in various parts of the world as well as the development in the

ontological understandings.

“Any relationship between a building and its users is one of violence, for any use means the

intrusion of a human body into a given space, the intrusion of one order into another.”

-Bernard Tschumi

Emerging from postmodernism in the late 1980s, deconstructivism in architecture took off as a

distinct approach and made a place in the world, being led by architects like Frank Gehry,Daniel

Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Coop Himmelb(l)au, and Bernard Tschumi.

The style was largely characterized by disjunction and fragmentation that tried to dislocate and distort

the elements of architecture like the structure and envelope. Particular to Tschumi’s approach, he

believed “Architecture is not simply about space and form, but also about event, action and what

happens in space”. For an event or an action to occur, there needs to be the presence of a physical

body to embody the movement. Thus, this leads to questioning the approach in the deconstruction

thought as to What is the understanding of the body? How has the body been looked at? What is the

position of the body in the conceptualisation of space? What has influenced the place of the body in

this context?

RESEARCH QUESTION

Jacques Derrida, considered as the founder of ‘deconstruction’, said that if thinking about architecture

is itself already a social construct, one might conclude that what needs to be deconstructed are not

the architectural forms themselves but rather the theoretical assumptions that lie behind the design of

those forms.

So then, how has the body and its multiple forms of embodiment become a part of the thinking

of architecture in the works of key deconstructivists.

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“Understanding the place of the body in the ‘deconstructive’ thought of space-making”

INTRODUCTION

In the history of the architectural discourse, starting from the Roman architect-engineer Vitruvius who wrote De architectura in the 1st century AD, to the Italian architect Alberti who re-interpreted Vitruvius’ laid down treaties in the 15th century at the onset of Renaissance, to the industrialised era where the truth in the substance of the historical text in architecture was put to test and challenged, to modernism, postmodernism and the present time— one thing that has been discussed and explored in all these eras is the relationship between the human body and architecture. This correlation has been made with both abstract as well as physical aspects of the bodies. The text that dealt with this relationship was greatly influenced by the theologies of different religions that were being born in various parts of the world as well as the development in the ontological understandings.

“Any relationship between a building and its users is one of violence, for any use means the intrusion of a human body into a given space, the intrusion of one order into another.” -Bernard Tschumi

Emerging from postmodernism in the late 1980s, deconstructivism in architecture took off as a distinct approach and made a place in the world, being led by architects like Frank Gehry,Daniel Libeskind, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Zaha Hadid, Coop Himmelb(l)au, and Bernard Tschumi. The style was largely characterized by disjunction and fragmentation that tried to dislocate and distort the elements of architecture like the structure and envelope. Particular to Tschumi’s approach, he believed “Architecture is not simply about space and form, but also about event, action and what happens in space”. For an event or an action to occur, there needs to be the presence of a physical body to embody the movement. Thus, this leads to questioning the approach in the deconstruction thought as to What is the understanding of the body? How has the body been looked at? What is the position of the body in the conceptualisation of space? What has influenced the place of the body in this context?

RESEARCH QUESTION

Jacques Derrida, considered as the founder of ‘deconstruction’, said that if thinking about architecture is itself already a social construct, one might conclude that what needs to be deconstructed are not the architectural forms themselves but rather the theoretical assumptions that lie behind the design of those forms. So then, how has the body and its multiple forms of embodiment become a part of the thinking of architecture in the works of key deconstructivists.

AIM

To understand the position/place of the body in architecture as articulated in the deconstructive thought, that we saw emerging from the postmodern condition; how was that position conceived, how was it represented and what were the implications on the trajectory of architecture due to that position of body in the thinking of architecture.

OBJECTIVES

● To present an overview of the historical evolution for the conceptualisation of the body in the building and understanding of space.

● To study the precedents of postmodernism; understanding postmodernism.

● To understand de-constructivism as a moment in postmodernism.

● To study the formative influences on architect’s understanding of the human body and its place in space, in selected works of key deconstructivists.

● To study the place of the body in the thinking of architecture by deconstructivists in order to understand what influences the thinking of architecture as well as how it affected the future trajectory of contemporary architecture.

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

This thesis only aims to understand the thinking of architecture based on the theoretical works and interviews of the architects. While only rational reasoning becomes a part of the theoretical work, one tends to get influenced by one’s intuitions and biases which is not usually documented or presented as an argument by the architect, unless mentioned otherwise— hence this thesis only looks critically at what the architect has expressed in his writings and interviews. This thesis does not aim to make value judgements of the theorists’ intellect and reasoning, but rather tries to objectively look at a subjective process of designing— from one’s own theoretical work. The thesis looks at the historical evolution of the place of the body in the thinking of architecture starting from the period of 1750s and will be focussing more on the last 20 years of the 1900s. The study has not been extended to the present time since there is no dominant style of architecture at the moment; there are plural understandings of architecture based on one’s own interpretation and vision of shaping the practice and hence the world.

Thesis Proposal for undergraduate thesis, Thesis of Architecture

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Download Thesis Proposal for undergraduate thesis and more Thesis Architecture in PDF only on Docsity!

INTRODUCTION

RESEARCH QUESTION

AIM

OBJECTIVES

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS