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Virginia Tech

The Everyday: Informing the realm of routine practice through design

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

When we think of the everyday, we tend to think of such words as familiar, ordinary, mundane, habitual, banal, and commonplace. Yet beyond these dictionary definitions lies a much deeper meaning and appreciation when understood as something that is experienced. When it comes to informing and interpreting the everyday through design, early contemporary theorists Michael De Certeau, Henri Lefebvre and Georges Perec to contemporary advocates of landscape architecture, such as Walter Hood and Laurie Olin, have provided a design oriented approach to the understanding on a subject of study that has long been neglected. There lies a relationship between the quotidian dimension and design that is attuned to experience of place and individual expression. This thesis presents an approach to discovering interpretations of the everyday and how landscape architects can express such influences in the design of urban public places. My methodology involves the use of case studies to provide design guidelines that are translated from universal to site specific values. By adapting the common vocabulary landscape architecture with the realm of the routine practices, the city as a deep rooted, ephemeral, and evolving entity will transform the public realm into spaces that can occupy the desire to grow, change, and adapt.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Landscape Architecture
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Landscape Architecture
Department dc:contributor.department
Landscape Architecture
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2006

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Webster, Kelvin Peter
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Katen, Brian F.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Foote, Jonathan
  • Feuerstein, Marcia F.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-04282006-154138
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/42350

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

Webster, Kelvin Peter. The Everyday: Informing the realm of routine practice through design. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/42350