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Virginia Tech

Civic Space: An Architectural Framework for Urban Invention

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This project represents the search for an architecture within the physical, historical, and political situation that an existing city presents. Set within the physical bounds of Savannah, it builds upon an understanding of the city as a series of Utopian propositions existing subliminally and often incongruously. As such, the project concerns the making of public space--space to relieve the culturally disjointed condition of modern urban life by acting as a sort of stage for creative expression and collective improvisation. This also involves the making of characteristic places, which by energetically acknowledging, confronting, challenging, or amplifying the cityâ s conceptions of itself, have the potential to generate both physical and metaphysical transformations. Furthermore, in response to urban development paradigms that are either senselessly uncoordinated or mechanistically authoritarian, the project proposes an alternative: the structured interweaving of a â civic layerâ of these generative urban centers, each serving a different part of the city. The centers must function architecturally as the symbols and containers of civic life, providing space and programmatic flexibility to allow for open cultural engagement while aesthetically enlivening the urban fabric and serving collectively as an index to the city at large.

Degree

thesis:*
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
2010

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Linnstaedt, Andrew John
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Thompson, Steven R.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Weiner, Frank H.
  • Gartner, Howard Scott

Subjects

dc:subject × 8

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-09222010-154528
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/35154

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Linnstaedt, Andrew John. Civic Space: An Architectural Framework for Urban Invention. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/35154