Americanaaaaaaa! : or a welcome home in Lowell, Massachusetts

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bodkin, Alexander(Alexander Robert)
Other Authors: Mariana Ibañez.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121693
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author Bodkin, Alexander(Alexander Robert)
author2 Mariana Ibañez.
author_facet Mariana Ibañez.
Bodkin, Alexander(Alexander Robert)
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collection MIT
description This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1216932019-11-22T04:12:59Z Americanaaaaaaa! : or a welcome home in Lowell, Massachusetts Welcome home in Lowell, Massachusetts Bodkin, Alexander(Alexander Robert) Mariana Ibañez. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture Architecture. This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Thesis: M. Arch., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2019 Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Page 250 blank. Includes bibliographical references (pages [247]-249). This thesis studies how nostalgia has been used to construct shared spatial and social expectations through the envelope of the American home. Then, based on the simple proposition to make the home bigger so that it might host a broader collective, it explores how these expectations can be subverted through distortions and exaggerations of the domestic envelope. As these exaggerations reach the limits of symbolic legibility, they begin to suggest alternate internal organizations which have the potential to shape the social relationships and negotiations of a new collective within. The site for this thesis is Lowell, Massachusetts, a once-prosperous textile mill town on the Merrimack River. Lowell is chosen for two of its defining features: its robust preservation campaign, which perpetuates a flattened representation of Lowell's collective identity that is rooted in a 1970s idea of 19th century domestic architecture, and its long history of immigration - today, approximately one quarter of Lowell's population is foreign born. These conditions provide an opportunity to appropriate Lowell's own nostalgia in the design of a new civic building - the Welcome Home - that serves a broader collective of local and newcomer. by Alexander Bodkin. M. Arch. M.Arch. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture 2019-07-15T20:34:53Z 2019-07-15T20:34:53Z 2019 2019 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121693 1102594851 eng MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 250 pages application/pdf n-us-ma Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Architecture.
Bodkin, Alexander(Alexander Robert)
Americanaaaaaaa! : or a welcome home in Lowell, Massachusetts
title Americanaaaaaaa! : or a welcome home in Lowell, Massachusetts
title_full Americanaaaaaaa! : or a welcome home in Lowell, Massachusetts
title_fullStr Americanaaaaaaa! : or a welcome home in Lowell, Massachusetts
title_full_unstemmed Americanaaaaaaa! : or a welcome home in Lowell, Massachusetts
title_short Americanaaaaaaa! : or a welcome home in Lowell, Massachusetts
title_sort americanaaaaaaa or a welcome home in lowell massachusetts
topic Architecture.
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121693
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