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Virginia Tech

The Life of Buildings: A Narrative Through Time

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The metaphor of buildings as "living beings" offers insight into our attitudes towards buildings and how we might conceive of buildings differently as architects. By personifying buildings as being alive, we understand the full life of a building, not only its past history but also its future needs, transformations or uses. The ceremonial opening of a building often assumes a finished construction existing within a fixed moment in time. In reality, however, buildings perpetually evolve throughout their entire lifetime. The story of a building's life, a chronicle of both the process of making and its evolution, can be narrated by the architect through the language of details. This thesis proposes a Gallery + Library Archive for Black Mountain College at the site of a fire-ravaged cotton mill within the River Arts District of Asheville, North Carolina. The project seeks to establish a continuum between the historic past of the site and the current transformations of the district. The architectural design of the new building serves as a vehicle to study buildings in time and details that reveal the process of a building's making.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Architecture
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Architecture
Department dc:contributor.department
Architecture
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2013

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • White, Jesse Tyler
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Emmons, Paul F.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Feuerstein, Marcia F.
  • Holt, Jaan

Subjects

dc:subject × 3

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:604
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/23288

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

White, Jesse Tyler. The Life of Buildings: A Narrative Through Time. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/23288