untitled, ambiguity and architecture

This thesis seeks to expand Robert Venturi's concept of ambiguity in architecture to include meanings that, extending beyond the formal and semiotic, are rooted in narrative. It takes as a precedent the work of Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel, two artists whose book Evidence explores both formal and narrative ambiguity in photography. This expanded definition of ambiguity evokes the mercurial and conflicting thoughts, feelings, facts, and memories that are at the core of architectural experience yet remain conspicuously absent from contemporary discourse. untitled consists of four books that collectively and equally constitute the thesis. Each book can be intepereted independently or in dialogue with its companions. Braddock, Pennsylvania is a steel town downriver from Pittsburgh, in Allegheny County. The town's dualities are manifest in the narrative tensions between past and present, mind and body, growth and decay.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Kosovac, Dennis Steven.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Andrew Scott.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

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

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127848

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/127848