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Virginia Tech

Advocating Silence

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The buildings people inhabit everyday frame their existence and provide a backdrop for life. This relationship is inextricable and, as such, begs the question as to whether buildings can function as more than mere containers for life or whether they, at some point or in some capacity, can begin to bare influence over the life or quality of life of their patrons. This project is an intention to explore this qualitative, unquantifiable aspect of building. Through a manipulation of volume and mass, constriction and expansion, solid and void, light and shadow, and the qualities of interiority and exteriority an occupied space will begin to impress itself upon the user. The main objective of this project is to use these architectural properties to create a place that fosters introspection through self awareness. By choosing presence over practicality and content over convention, the construct proposed in this thesis attempts to create spaces that are imposing and unfamiliar yet somehow emotionally reminiscent. Confronted by these contradictions and juxtapositions, this building will stand as an object, in opposition to the occupant, and through that opposition inspire and promote a greater awareness of, and possibly a reflection upon, normally unconscious thought processes.

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
2013

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Forth, Stephen
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Rott, Hans Christian
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Gartner, Howard Scott
  • Edge, Kay F.

Subjects

dc:subject × 13

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:1289
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/52638

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Forth, Stephen. Advocating Silence. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/52638