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Virginia Tech

A Wall a Bench a Tree

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

A quest for agelessness in what we make seems to hold great allure. The spotless, the seamless, the immaterial, the idealized all labor in an attempt to escape the collection of dust and to transcend time, evincing neither origin nor decay. There is a rift between that manner of making which strives for an imperishable, ageless quality and the manner of making that embraces the poetics of material and temporality and mortality. It is beautiful to imagine the made thing that embodies a fable about welcoming inevitable change. From the moment it is made, it is gracefully, eloquently transforming; it willingly trades youth for handsome qualities that it did not first possess. It is commendable when a made thing achieves timelessness without striving vainly for agelessness. This thesis uses the vehicle of making an outdoor sitting room- composed of a wall, a bench, and a tree- to explore questions of the passage of seasons, of weathering, and of how the made thing can celebrate its own temporal nature.

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
2020

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Johnson, Bryan Wacey
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Doan, Patrick A.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Rott, Hans Christian
  • Galloway, William U.

Subjects

dc:subject × 7

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:24365
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/97515

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
related terms
citation

Johnson, Bryan Wacey. A Wall a Bench a Tree. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/97515