Architecture as the imitation of an action

When Aristotle writes in the Poetics that "tragedy is the imitation of an action," he is referring to an action that is the essence and the motivation behind the drama, and that all the parts of the tragedy are concerned with imitating this action in the forms appropriate to them. This thesis applies this definition to architecture, and argues that the action that architecture should imitate is the moment when the everyday is elevated by extraordinary circumstances to the level of art. This action is both the intellectual content behind the building and its physical inspiration. This action occurs when normal, everyday things are transformed, changed into something else: they become heroic; they become art. Architecture, like drama, affords us the opportunity to recreate this transcendent action with every performance. The thesis is explored through the design of a theater center located in New York, New York called the Manhattanville Theater Project. In informing the design of the project the thesis suggests the following design issues that help to bring the action to the surface and make it understandable: 1. Things that are normally not seen are made part of the performance. 2. Things that are normally hidden are revealed. 3. Audience and performance are reversed. 4. The traditional boundaries of the theater are blurred.