Architectural Advocacy: Public Buildings as Normative Communication
Public architecture is intrinsically an issue of communication, and both are of keen importance to contemporary public life. Few communications scholars consider public buildings as communicative media, but doing so would begin dialogues on how to broaden the influence of both communication research and architecture among essential, nonexpert audiences. Further, a public architecture expressive of certain durable values can and should be at the forefront of the public realm. In light of heightened visual expectations and contemporary sensibilities fostered and reflected by mass media, utilizing architecture's great ability to communicate is the way to trumpet built space's role in civics. Written for the architectural nonexpert, this dissertation explores these issues in terms of architecture, qualitative communicative theory, history, and ethnography. Provocative public buildings and a theory called architectural advocacy provide broad conceptual guidelines.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign