De-centering culture : designing and arena for debate and transformation

In recent years, the display of culture has been engulfed by consumption. Hereby lies the danger of designing a building [center] for cultural identity. There is a tendency to use building to emphasize the event and festival, which may be successful in terms of economic expectations, but convert art into a commodity. This, as a phenomenon, promotes false unities between individuals and leads to fallacious stereotyping of groups. It is by this manner that the "culture" of the other is objectivized, along with the individual. This thesis project consists of designing a Performance Arts Center for a minority Latino community within the affluent South End, in Boston. Potentially, art can serve as a dialogue between equals. Through a space dedicated to performance and art, it is possible to establish an arena for the discussion of identities, not only for the people of a neighborhood but also for people in the rest of the city. It should describe, and serve as an example for, ever developing and transforming narratives that make up the whole concept of "cultural identity".

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Sanchez, Frances A. (Frances Aracelis), 1978-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ann Pendleton-Jullian.

• 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

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28324

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/28324