The Remains of a Place

• Main Author: Faulring, Lynn Marie
• Other Authors: Architecture
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: Virginia Tech 2014
• Subjects: renovation; structure; art gallery; LD5655.V855 1999.F385
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/35617; http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-110699-153038/

What makes a city exist? Is it movement, rhythm, symbols, texture, volume and time? Architecture should heighten the drama of living, walking gives a true scale of the city, creating an experience. Urban spaces must accommodate the individual. Movement systems determine the shape of the fields of influence; this varies in intensity with the degree of movement. This thesis is an exploration into architecture of meaning, space and elements. These common elements change context and increase scale while recognizing the difference between inside and outside. This contrast supports meaning. The play of scale, hierarchy and patterns use space in different ways accommodating the individual. An existing condition is transformed and renovated. What entities are removed and what entities will remain? This art museum is permanent and changing over time, architecture that transforms. A strong symbolic form, the cube, establishes an entity within the urban fabric. A sequence of sensations in size, scale, color, texture and light motivate the space. Tension is created between two bodies, the exterior brick shell and interior steel framework. Natural light penetrates a double height space of new elegantly structured steel with reinforced concrete stepping platforms. The existing wood columns overlap into this steel structure creating a place for movement. Juxtaposition is created between new construction and the existing. Light steel opposes heavy wood while transparency opposes opacity. Steel frames with concrete slabs independent of the existing shell and cantilevering precast concrete boxes oppose wood timbers and brick bearing walls. Concrete floors and gaps created where they meet walls oppose wood floors touching the walls. This completes this thesis. === Master of Architecture