Space in Flux: Activating Lost Space by Connecting it Back to the Urban Environment

Object Type: Asset
In Folder: 2020 Theses

Expand to show object metadata

Space in Flux: Activating Lost Space by Connecting it Back to the Urban Environment

Submitted to the Department of Architecture in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, April 2020

Dublin Core Metadata

title: Space in Flux: Activating Lost Space by Connecting it Back to the Urban Environment

creator: Michael Anderson

subject: Space (Architecture); Land use, Urban; Elevated highways; Public spaces, Massachusetts, Somerville, Designs and plans; Modular construction

description: Contemporary cities have become increasingly inefficient in their use of space. Different forms of lost space can be found throughout the modern urban landscape. From abandoned waterfronts to vacant trainyards, these spaces pose an interesting opportunity to build upon the surrounding community. Much of the existing forms of lost space are quite undesirable to architects to design them as well as the community who want to spend time in them. Cities are getting denser with increasing population migrating to city centers and the surrounding community look toward lost space in order to provide them with needs that they aren’t being provided. If architecture is allowed to take over the space, these existing undesirable space can be used to activate neighborhoods, and connect with back with the urban context. It is our role as architects to fill in these gaps in urban infrastructure and provide uses to spaces that have been an afterthought for urban designers since the start of the industrial age. Our need for more urban space has driven up costs for land, but in reality, plentiful amounts of land exist in our current cities. Architecture has the ability to fix these undesirable spaces, some of which weren’t meant to be designed for in the first place, by fixing their shortcomings and providing the space with light, ventilation, and usability. Denser cities can have the benefit of solving many of the modern city’s downfalls such as lack of usable land and distance between resources. Having space that is in flux, one which is always changing, can allow the community to suit the space to their specific needs. The adaptation of these spaces will not happen immediately, successful architecture needs to kickstart to movement that will ultimately lead to the useful creation of successful spaces that once were lost from the urban fabric.

publisher: The Douglas D. Schumann Library and Learning Commons, Wentworth Institute of Technology

contributor:

date: 2020

type: Thesis

format:

identifier:

source:

language: eng

relation:

coverage:

rights: https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Show more ▼