ARCHITECTURE IS FLAT

Project Information

Academic Thesis: Cornell University Fall 2012

Award: *Richmond Harold Shreve Thesis Prize*

Advisors: Mark Morris, Dana Cupkova

This thesis challenges two dimensional flatness to act as the primary driver of the formal and conceptual formwork for architectural production. It is my bias that we experience the world as a series of fragmented views.  Each view contains the generative potential towards the production of architecture. This thesis operates as an methodology which develops composition as a catalyst for this production. The present architectural discourse is focused on volumetric production as a means of conceptual and formal generation. The discourse is becoming increasingly homogenized through this object-based mode of production. Unfortunately, lack of meaning and ambiguity have slowly began to become a prevalent trend in the formalization of recent architecture. This object-centric obsession has led to the degradation of artistic architectural invention while simultaneously reducing differences in conceptual identity. Utilizing existing compositions generate as a point of departure for architecture thinking, a multiplicity of readings and experiences allows the building occupant to engage in the space of the architecture.