Connecting boundaries : creating a dialog between interior and exterior identities-a nautical museum in Figueira da Foz

This thesis addresses boundaries as they relate to critical regionalism, For the purposes of this thesis the central issue of critical regionalism revolves around the question of how does one become or remain modern in a global, universal world while still maintaining a coherency of place, so that one's roots and traditions may be acknowledged, The thesis will focus on this boundary between the particulars of a place and its global context. Boundaries have the dual capacity to isolate and connect places and artifacts to make them distinguishable. Additionally, bounded situations address interior conditions as well as exterior conditions. Boundaries are conditions of the inbetween and therefore naturally create edges.

To explore the notions of boundaries both a site and a program were chosen which inherently manifested these issues so they could be explored in depth and breadth. The site, located in Portugal, straddles both water and land as well as straddling the old and new precincts of a city. The program is a nautical museum, addressing Portugal's distinguished history of being a seafaring nation, traveling to all corners of the globe, while being bounded to particular traditions, place, and time. Boundaries between contemporary and traditional construction will be explored in the thesis as well as the metaphorical and symbolic capacities that boundaries contain.