Public Oasis for Nomads

As our technologies evolve, the world gets smaller, and it becomes easier for people to travel and mix. Some people travel, some move permanently, creating an exchange of cultures and knowledge. I believe our architecture should also change and reflect this new aspect of our communities. For that aim I propose a new typology of building. It is a place for people to gather, relax and stay a while, without relying only on other individuals to make the building live and have purpose. The building itself shall be a source of knowledge and experiences akin to tastes and feelings of places abroad. This will be achieved by combining vernacular architecture from different parts of the world, not by having a French room, an Indian room and a South African room, but by studying the vernacular architecture of these places, and creating a whole new language that can express the multiplicity of those places as one. Someone walking in a room will see an aspect which will be reminiscent of his/her place of origin, whereas someone else entering the same room might notice a different architectural element which will bring forth the image of a totally different place. As the individual traverses the building he/she will experience a multitude of spaces with different conditions such as height, width, size, but also a change in temperature, humidity, lighting and smells. Washington D.C. is a very diverse city, with people coming from all over the world, which is a prime example of the melting-pot that is the United States of America. From there, the site was chosen to be in the Dupont Circle area due to the high density of embassies and consulates, business buildings and restaurants. The building will be similar to an oasis for nomads who would like to go to a place that reminds them of their homelands or for locals to sit by the watering hole and listen to stories of lands far away, while actually experiencing those stories through the building.

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

2020

Author dc:creator

• Folliet, Thibaut Michel

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Emmons, Paul F.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Feuerstein, Marcia F.
• Holt, Jaan

• Architecture
• Design
• Senses

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:9086

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/99203