For my thesis I chose to look at how mundane social rituals can encouraged with architecture, and the architect’s role in it. The project combines an architecture firm and a cafe, they share space on each floor. The mixing of the program and the layout of the building encourages physical interaction between the two user groups, which enables understanding.Â
Engaging in ritual remakes understanding. The ritual can bring together two things that are usually apart, making the combination physically available to the senses. Migration is an opportunity for new groups to be brought together in a way that promotes understanding of the other. Often the places that migrants arrive at do not enable ritual. This is the fault of governments, urban planners, and architects. Each of these can give migrants the opportunity to establish themselves, but the architect makes places physical. The architect acts for specific people in specific places, but to act effectively he must physically be in these places, know its people, and understand their ritual.
I chose to draw without the computer during the project. The final is pen on vellum over a collage of textures and entourage.
