Vita Beata

"The main role of the art of building is to make our life pleasant and happy, an invaluable vita beata"-Marco Frascari. Vita Beata-the blessed life, the good life-this is why we design and ultimately build. Designers too often forget this important reality and unwittingly design places which may serve the financial expediency of their clients, or their own intellectual hubris, but entirely miss this highest aim of architecture. Such an epicurean design position demands that the highest priority be placed on architectural relationships and conditions which serve people in their endeavor to be reconciled and at peace with their surroundings. This thesis examines three such relationships: the relationship of the house with neighboring houses, the relationship of the house with its site, and the relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces. Houses built under today's urban (or suburban) sprawl paradigm often create dysfunction and disharmony in these critical relationships and subtly alienate and harass people in their daily efforts to fulfill their most fundamental human desires. Several precedents from master architects are considered which actively address these important relationships, with very positive results. A small, multi-unit, residential project is proposed with respect to these relationships and in response to the harmful practices of urban sprawl. Our culture desperately needs relevant proposals from architects which address the blight of urban sprawl. Too often, architectural ideas are limited in their relevance because they are conceived in utopian notions that disregard, or naively overlook, important contextual factors and relationships.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Architecture

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Architecture

Department dc:contributor.department

Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• Hart, Timothy Robert

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Brown, William W.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Rott, Hans Christian
• O'Brien, Michael J.

• urban design
• urbanism
• urban sprawl
• proportion
• Architecture

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-06072003-090605

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/33466