ABSTRACT by Susan Varickanickal I grew up in the suburbs, and perhaps I am embarrassed to admit it. But there is no use denying it. It’s written all over my face. Even though I have been away for nearly a decade, the residue of that past life still lingers. I am civilized, programmed to perform in a manner that best suits society at this present time. I move in unison with the other bodies around me, abiding...
ABSTRACT by Sonja Storey-Fleming This thesis is concerned with the moments, places and circumstances in which the great magnitude of the world is felt. I live within the vast space of the spherical earth and the infinite space of the universe, however, it is rare that I consider the immensity of the space in which I live and endeavor to build. This thesis is an examination of the ability of both architecture and landscape to frame immense space and phenomena of the earth,...
ABSTRACT by Justin Breg Time and structure; expectation and construction; landscape and architecture; history and myth. The foundation is a joint which carries extraordinary potential to speak of the cultures that built it. This text tells stories about three cultures whose identities are interwoven with their foundation-building. Tracing a path among the distinct ways in which they found, it values the foundation as a marker between anticipating and making in the architectural process; an ambiguous joint between land and building; an invisible structure of the surfaces...
ABSTRACT by Sebastian Strobel This thesis is a journey that unfolds alongside the transformations of a river during springtime. Moods and movements captured by Ted Hughes in his poem Stump Pool in April inspire a series of explorations that set out to express the affective vectors of the river’s becoming through sculpture and architecture. The thesis is a manifestation of this search. Arranged as a narrative in five chapters, each offers an account of the emergence...
ABSTRACT by April Wong The Dollhouse is a model of domestic life; its material framework, spatiality, passage, function and aesthetic describe the architectural construction of a domestic ideal. Yet, the Dollhouse is not simply an architectural model; it is made specifically to house a Doll. While architecture structures the movement of the body, social constructions mold the body as well as its image. Thus, both architectural and social frameworks come together simultaneously to form the cast of the Dollhouse, for which the Doll is molded to fit....
Detail of 367 Undergraduate Student Paths. The University of Waterloo – November 26 to December 7, 2012 ABSTRACT by Geoffrey Giles Christou As Galileo peered through a lens to see the twinkle of the Jovian moons, and Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek did the same to study the tremulous basis of all life, so the fabric of threads we weave across time and space – the vast net of relations that bind and separate us – is only...
ABSTRACT by Uros Novakovic Confronted with issues, whose ultimate (socioeconomic) causes cannot be resolved through the modification of the built environment, architectural interventions may often inadvertently aid the reproduction of the problems they seek to resolve. In eliminating symptoms of social inequality, alienation and marginalization, architecture can legitimize the social order out of which they arise. In such situations, architects’ attempts to concern themselves with narrowly practical concerns are insufficient even to their own aims,...
ABSTRACT by Laura Knap We insist upon “green space,” but the term’s vague cast brings little into focus. In this thesis I search out what it is that we look for in green space. I consider some ways, within our North American context, that we interact with it, represent it, speak about it and write about it. Drawing together evidence from a diverse range of sources in myth and mapping, poetry, classical philosophy, feminist theory, language, and personal experience, I find enigmatic but persistent geometries of...
Please join members of the Architecture Community Garden for two events this week: Summer Solstice Picnic Friday, June 21 at 5:30 pm | Meet at the Garden Please join us as we celebrate landscape, community, and local food production, beginning with a tour of the Architecture Community Garden. From there we will walk or bike along the Grand Trunk Trail to the Springbank Community Gardens at rare Charitable Research Reserve (681 Blair Road). Please bring...
ABSTRACT by Elyse Snyder I live in a society where a state of multi-tasking and over-stimulation is common. I am inundated with excessive information and seemingly addicted to distraction. My love affair with hi speed digital devices devours all sense of time and space. But in the process of making all information available to everyone, all the time, we are losing our connection with the value of direct experience. What I can see, feel, taste,...