Wrinkles

As simple as the natural law, no physical objects will last forever - we are all in the process of perpetual senescence. While our eyes are sensitive towards the life cycle of human bodies, they are less attuned to the way buildings age. A building’s pristine original state, if that ever exists, onl...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zhang, Daisy Ziyan
Other Authors: O’Brien Jr., William
Format: Thesis
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2023
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150210
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author Zhang, Daisy Ziyan
author2 O’Brien Jr., William
author_facet O’Brien Jr., William
Zhang, Daisy Ziyan
author_sort Zhang, Daisy Ziyan
collection MIT
description As simple as the natural law, no physical objects will last forever - we are all in the process of perpetual senescence. While our eyes are sensitive towards the life cycle of human bodies, they are less attuned to the way buildings age. A building’s pristine original state, if that ever exists, only marks an infinitesimal, ephemeral point in the coordinates of time. Time is in fact the most significant part of the vitality of what we call - architecture. This thesis uses “wrinkles” as a conceptual thread to study the correlation between a building’s life cycle and the life cycles of the humans who inhabit it. It seeks an alternative to break the binary of before/after, and to redefine the beginning and the end of architectural design. It is also an attempt to learn from the quotidian, the ordinary, and to gently question established forms of architectural authorship. This thesis is rooted in an anonymous residential building in the center of Mexico City, one with 70 years of history being born, lived, earthquake-destructed, abandoned, repaired, rejuvenated, cared for, and so on. It dances between observation and imagination, and creates storytelling that unearths architecture as a living object, and unwraps its hidden layers of complexity. Borrowing viewpoints from our allied disciplines, photography, filmmaking, and landscape architecture, this thesis uses the digital camera to access a series of spatial tools, such as photogrammetry, data processing softwares, plotting machine, and most importantly, our eyes. It is an attempt to build an alternative literacy, a set of representations for the fundamental elements architecture is entangled with - time and people. Solutionism is not the offering of this thesis, but rather, an outlook for re-discovering architecture as life-long projects.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1502102023-04-01T04:04:26Z Wrinkles Zhang, Daisy Ziyan O’Brien Jr., William Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture As simple as the natural law, no physical objects will last forever - we are all in the process of perpetual senescence. While our eyes are sensitive towards the life cycle of human bodies, they are less attuned to the way buildings age. A building’s pristine original state, if that ever exists, only marks an infinitesimal, ephemeral point in the coordinates of time. Time is in fact the most significant part of the vitality of what we call - architecture. This thesis uses “wrinkles” as a conceptual thread to study the correlation between a building’s life cycle and the life cycles of the humans who inhabit it. It seeks an alternative to break the binary of before/after, and to redefine the beginning and the end of architectural design. It is also an attempt to learn from the quotidian, the ordinary, and to gently question established forms of architectural authorship. This thesis is rooted in an anonymous residential building in the center of Mexico City, one with 70 years of history being born, lived, earthquake-destructed, abandoned, repaired, rejuvenated, cared for, and so on. It dances between observation and imagination, and creates storytelling that unearths architecture as a living object, and unwraps its hidden layers of complexity. Borrowing viewpoints from our allied disciplines, photography, filmmaking, and landscape architecture, this thesis uses the digital camera to access a series of spatial tools, such as photogrammetry, data processing softwares, plotting machine, and most importantly, our eyes. It is an attempt to build an alternative literacy, a set of representations for the fundamental elements architecture is entangled with - time and people. Solutionism is not the offering of this thesis, but rather, an outlook for re-discovering architecture as life-long projects. M.Arch. 2023-03-31T14:39:47Z 2023-03-31T14:39:47Z 2023-02 2023-02-28T18:54:29.201Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150210 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright retained by author(s) https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Zhang, Daisy Ziyan
Wrinkles
title Wrinkles
title_full Wrinkles
title_fullStr Wrinkles
title_full_unstemmed Wrinkles
title_short Wrinkles
title_sort wrinkles
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/150210
work_keys_str_mv AT zhangdaisyziyan wrinkles