Ad Astra : designing future archeologies

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: Kobald, Alexander(Alexander Vincent)
Other Authors: Jennifer Leung.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121695
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author Kobald, Alexander(Alexander Vincent)
author2 Jennifer Leung.
author_facet Jennifer Leung.
Kobald, Alexander(Alexander Vincent)
author_sort Kobald, Alexander(Alexander Vincent)
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-1721.1/1216952019-07-24T03:05:37Z Ad Astra : designing future archeologies Designing future archeologies Kobald, Alexander(Alexander Vincent) Jennifer Leung. 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. Includes bibliographical references (pages 116-118). This thesis proposes a methodology for the speculation of futures in architecture. The title "Ad Astra" translates as "to the stars", a romantic harkening to the human ambition and desire to interrogate and surpass the physical and intellectual boundaries of our world. The subtitle, "Designing Future Archaeologies" alludes to a method of producing these futures and the design knowledge available in them. This architecture is a story. It takes place aboard a spaceship carrying 800 passengers travelling for 800 years to the Trappist 1 system. This story is told through a narrative, describing a fictional history of a speculated future. The narrative is driven by three contrived events; pressure points that propel the plot of the story of the Theseus II; a ship/architecture that remakes itself from within in response to the changing social priorities and characters of its inhabitants. This architecture is an imagined future, born from the contingencies, variabilities and randomness of its speculated history. This future is designed; a future that seeks to produce knowledge even in an isolated time capsule of humanity in which "knowledge" is expected to atrophy. The knowledge produced aboard the Theseus II comes from within its isolated condition. Each of the scenarios has a speculated physical response, a disturbance to the status quo that is formed by the shifting material, social and epistemological priorities of the crew. Ultimately, this future is one of many possible futures; each the consequence of accumulated events whose physical and social consequences cannot be predicted. It is in this landscape of instability and randomness that there is a knowledge available to architecture and it is type of knowledge that will be necessary to design futures beyond human lifespans. The future is, fundamentally, contingent. by Alexander Kobald. M. Arch. M.Arch. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture 2019-07-15T20:35:11Z 2019-07-15T20:35:11Z 2019 2019 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121695 1102595544 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 118 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Architecture.
Kobald, Alexander(Alexander Vincent)
Ad Astra : designing future archeologies
title Ad Astra : designing future archeologies
title_full Ad Astra : designing future archeologies
title_fullStr Ad Astra : designing future archeologies
title_full_unstemmed Ad Astra : designing future archeologies
title_short Ad Astra : designing future archeologies
title_sort ad astra designing future archeologies
topic Architecture.
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121695
work_keys_str_mv AT kobaldalexanderalexandervincent adastradesigningfuturearcheologies
AT kobaldalexanderalexandervincent designingfuturearcheologies