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ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2661-9269
Access Type
Open Access Thesis
Document Type
thesis
Degree Program
Architecture
Degree Type
Master of Architecture (M.Arch.)
Year Degree Awarded
2020
Month Degree Awarded
May
Abstract
How can the convergence of human interaction and form activate underused spaces and catalyze future community developments?
Architecture is defined by human needs, such as that of shelter, comfort, and place. However, we as humans have other needs; the need to create, to make, to play, to thrive, to inhabit, and to interact. The interaction between humans and architecture can serve as fuel to answer the question of how these ideas converge. This thesis examines the dynamic between humans and architecture, and how this interaction can catalyze future change by creating space and place utilized within the underused areas of urban communities.
The debate of form versus function is not new, but this thesis continues to question this relationship. It questions what happens when we are allowed to change form – what happens to the function? If we are allowed to change the function, what happens to the form? What can we control through these changes, and what can we create? These questions can be answered through the development of a series of dynamic structures with the ability to expand and contract. Through the process of this expansion and contraction, function becomes variable. Form becomes dynamic. These structures inhabit the leftover spaces of urban settings, using the limited space between buildings to the advantage of creating a dynamic, ever-changing space for community placemaking and architectural intervention, and allowing future community developments to thrive in these leftover spaces.
These modular, compact, built environments have the potential to blend the literal and metaphorical boundaries of surface, program, and human interaction. By allowing the individuals of an urban community to gather within an otherwise ignored space, and by giving them the ability to physically transform this space establishes a place to create, make, play, grow, perform, learn, relax, and socialize.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/vkte-6b94
First Advisor
Joseph Krupczynski
Recommended Citation
Beaudoin, Clayton, "Urban Inter-Space: Convergence of Human Interaction and Form" (2020). Masters Theses. 912.
https://doi.org/10.7275/vkte-6b94
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/912