Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-2014

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Architecture

Major

Architecture

Major Professor

Avigail Sachs

Committee Members

George Dodds, Katherine Ambroziak

Abstract

Decades of poor urban design choices and a lack of attention to the characteristics of communities have played prominent roles in the fracturing of urban communities and the relegation of those without means to the edges of the urban fabric: poverty and powerlessness abetted by geographic location. Rather than “restitching” the urban whole back together, I argue that progress can be made through the generation of local nodes of identity: a polynucleated urban condition. The development of spaces to magnify community identity with respect to localized characteristics produces a community focus to replace the unattainable (for those without means) city center. The end result is heterogeneous nodes of identity, characterized by local conditions, that offer access to and from the surrounding nodes.

I apply this proposition to the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Its urban division stands as an example of the ability of infrastructure, geography and socioeconomics to fracture a city. The project is an execution of a masterplan for an under-utilized portion of eastern New Orleans that generates a defined neighborhood identity. I contend that a delirious architecture magnifies neighborhood characteristics provides a place to display unique community identity.

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