How color and light change our perception of space, time and movement in architecture

This thesis explores the way in which color and light change the way we understand our built environment. The site for this thesis is at the west end of the Esplanade. The Esplanade is a recreational park along the Boston side of the Charles River in Massachusetts. The park has built facilities for sailing, concerts, and eating that detour off to one side or the other of the park's system of paths. The topography of the site is quite flat. Movement through the park is seemingly timeless as one walks parallel to the water, past unremarkable landmarks. The west end of the Esplanade is a long, narrow strip of land between the Charles River and a small lagoon. Through the exploration of color and light, this thesis tries to recover a sense of time at both a large and small scale as one moves through the site. The sense of time is revealed through the constantly changing interaction between light and materials as the sun moves from east to west. It also tries to introduce a new spacial understanding of the site by breaking away from the existing parallel movement both physically and visually. The vehicle for this exploration is a proposal for a recreational building that includes a swimming pool with changing facilities, cafe and community art gallery.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1997

Author dc:creator

• Terzian, Deirdre A. (Deirdre Ann)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Imre Halasz and Julie Dorsey.

• 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

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37188

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/37188