Recognizing contextual continuities : investigations of the Charleston single house

This thesis is ultimately an exercise in understanding the processes of transformation in an urban environment How can one determine the relevant physical attributes of an existing fabric for inclusion in new construction as a way towards building greater continuity? For this investigation I have chosen to examine and work within the context of Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston is a city over two hundred years old, which now supports a very different social and economic structure from that of its original physical manifestation. There exists an explicit, regulating set of principles that underlay the historic built context. Considering that building technologies, means and methods have changed along with our notions of spatial requirements (clearly demonstrated through already existing transformations), it does not seem appropriate that one would duplicate the physical reality of buildings produced in the distant past. Equally inappropriate are current trends of producing veneered images of the past. If these solutions for generating new structures are to be avoided, existing buildings and the resultant spatial relationships defined must be thoroughly understood. Here then is an investigation of Charleston's spatial structure from which certain design parameters will be extracted towards the generation of several design projections. Spatial structure embodies those elements which define and articulate the sizes (and therefore capacity) and particular qualities of space. for example: whether open or closed. vertical or horizontal. light or dark, collective or private, indoor or outdoor, etc. Having lived in Charleston for three years, the particular solutions put forth will also be driven by my biased understandings of what it means to live in Charleston's urban environment.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

1990

Author dc:creator

• Ferris, Denise Marie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Thomas Chastain.

• 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/1721.1/66326

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/66326