An exploration in challenge and integration

The architecture of today must seek to challenge and simultaneously integrate with the architecture of yesterday. This can be done through design with both thought and creativity. By simply devaluing the old, we lose our rootedness, even as our expressive capabilities become less limited. At the same time, by sanctifying the old, we lose the ability to meet new challenges, even though we are able to preserve our past.

This thesis maintains that it is necessary to build in a way that helps us understand our past but also be mindful that conditions change over time. New buildings must show our partnership with and our differences from the past. This thesis will investigate how one can build by responding to an old condition, and designing in a manner that allows the old to be expressed while showing the nature in which we live today. The thesis illustrates through design the importance of our past, while at the same time encourages the creativity needed to face the significant challenges of our future.

“Now, in its day, this was an important concept; and, as a conviction that only the new is fully authentic, one may still feel its cogency. However, whatever may be the authenticity of the new, alongside novelty of artifacts one might just possibly recognize novelty of ideas.” - Colin Rowe, introduction to Collage City