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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Poetic expression in architecture

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

A common element of twentieth century thought has been the analysis of each phenomenon to its internal logic, the reduction of everything to bare essentials. What has evolved is a notion, to some extent shared by all of us, that in a world which seems almost incomprehensible we can regain meaning by stripping away the superfluous and revealing the essential. What has been pushed aside in this mind-cleaning frenzy is that other side of human nature, the speculative, imaginative side, a side no less important than the definitive and rational one. My purpose in this thesis is to use poetry--that is, poetic verse--as a model for relearning the expression of architectural ideas in ways that will encourage people to speculate and to form imaginative connections. The study is in two parts: an essay and a design of a library for Barnard College.

Degree

thesis:*
Department dc:contributor.department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.
Grantor dc:publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Year dc:date.issued
1983

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Epstein, Deborah A
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Stanford Anderson.

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Rights

dc:rights
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.
Language dc:language.iso
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/73255
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/73255

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
MIT
Base URL
dspace.mit.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Epstein, Deborah A. Poetic expression in architecture. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1983. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/73255