Disturbance grounds : an inquiry into non-equilibrium architectural states

Fundamentally, this project pursues the concept of construction from destructive forces. It presents architectural opportunity at the physical scale of the mega-city and the time scale of the geological, advocating for a manipulation of our environment that extends architectural operation beyond our life-span, human labor, and predefined architectural program. From nature's perspective, mass material movements are one of the ways in which it deconstructs; in the case of a natural disturbance, one can observe the rebirth of material from one form to another. Geological timelines witness the entire re-composition of materials. Materiality has always been at the heart of many architectural issues, from assembly to phenomenological and economics discussion, informing the way we construct. In architecture, aggregation of material is a wide-ranging topic, but can most traditionally be thought of as stone or concrete. This thesis takes on the issues of aggregate materials at the edge of a balanced state. As this non-equilibrium state begins to suggest the very pressing concern of environmental hazards, the project speculates on a scenario that is more frequently encountered by urban populations and is increasingly well documented as instrumentation becomes more widespread and risks increase. Perhaps we can find a way to construct an architecture that changes material phasing as a response to natural geological processes. Abstracting conditions to a lab-like studio setting, the project explores the subject of aggregation and accumulation.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Crain, Tyler D. (Tyler Dean)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Skylar Tibbits.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/97366

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/97366