Field Guide to Social Spaces, 2019
M.Arch Studio, Advised by Linda Keanne, Mejay Gula, and Hennie Reynders
Where architecture is often seen as a product, this thesis intends to use it as a process to explore social spaces: hidden dimensions within human interaction that are constantly navigated, but rarely spoken about or visualized. Similar to buildings, these spaces have real dimensions and governing rules, yet they are nebulous and transient, invisible at first glance.
A shouted conversation in a plaza creates a threshold as impassable as a wall. A family reunion in an airport holds a space as intimate as a small cafe.
These behaviors and interactions are the beautiful mess that make us, and our buildings, wonderfully human. Once we study the ways in which they speak together, I am excited to listen.
Equal parts research and humor, this publication, titled “A Field Guide to Social Spaces” is printed and distributed en masse at public gallery openings. The guide aims to educate the reader about the relationship between architecture and human interaction. It keys into the various planes (visible and invisible, built and social) that we operate on. An accompanying narration takes a critical look at what makes humans and buildings so alike, and so different.
This project is one major component of this thesis. They can be found linked below:
1. Social research, based on the busy sidewalks of downtown Chicago
2. A Field Guide to Social Spaces, which aims to capture the intricacies of human interaction, in comparison with our built environments.
3. A live performance that embodied and activated the basic forms of social space, as outlined by the Field Guide.
Others in M.Arch Thesis
Perspective and plan of a common street scene in downtown Chicago.
Metrics of interaction such as movement and senses are recorded.
A Field Guide to Social Spaces, printed and available at SAIC's Design Show 2019.
Above: Title spread of A Field Guide to Social Spaces.
Introduces topic and outlines key parallels drawn by thesis.
Below: Back spreads that introduce the performative element of this thesis and illustrate
three main spatial concepts that are commonly embodied in everyday life.
