EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement
Faculty Mentor
Jennifer Akerman
Department (e.g. History, Chemistry, Finance, etc.)
Architecture
College (e.g. College of Engineering, College of Arts & Sciences, Haslam College of Business, etc.)
College of Architecture + Design
Location
Digital
Event Website
https://symposium.foragerone.com/utkeureca21/presentations/23614
Year
2021
Abstract
The 21st century has been fraught with deeply impactful inflection points in the trajectory of our nation. These pivotal moments affect varying and at times overlapping aspects of our lives, whether they be cultural, economic, spatial, or otherwise. The timeline of this thesis kicks off with one of these inflection points; the 2010 Supreme Court case Citizens United v. FEC. Effectively opening the door for corporate financial involvement (read: meddling and black-mailing) in the political sphere, the paradigm shift this case brought sets the stage for extrapolation and speculation of an alternate reality; a reality where corporations are the “powers that be”.
This thesis is a story with two sets of “actors”. On one side there are the corporations, with their present day interests rendered with the implementation of megaprojects, the goals of which vary widely from corporation to corporation. The other side is composed of the dissidents, the "Davids" of this Goliath-ruled future.
What effect do these megastructures have on the physical landscape? On the flora and fauna? On the socioeconomic stratification of its constituent inhabitants?
What is architecture's role in all of this? What architectures are used to supplement corporate rule, and how do these very same architectures become their own undoing? Can the human spirit overcome the indomitable will of the corporate machine?
Included in
Architectural History and Criticism Commons, Other Architecture Commons, Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons