Robbins, Felix;
(2019)
An architectural project: essays in (re)construction.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Preview |
Text (Thesis)
Robbins_Thesis.pdf Download (55MB) | Preview |
Preview |
Text (Illustrative material)
Robbins_Illustrative Material CD.pdf Download (45MB) | Preview |
Abstract
My research investigates the construction of an architectural project, by which I mean both the intellectual framework for projecting and the processes of production. I explore this construction through design research and epistemological enquiry to test ways of working that might enable an approach to what I consider is a problematic discipline. By working across and between a mixture of sceptical, pragmatic and post-structuralist positions, I investigate the opportunities for responding to this problematic situation as an ongoing process of questioning. I consider the construction of an architectural project to have an inherently problematic relationship with its foundations, which, when considered in a broader context of a general relativity of cultural production, leaves the discipline exposed. An architectural project becomes incapable of defining a ground, whilst forever seeking a ground within which a product might be founded. I develop my response to this predicament with two thematic preoccupations: Firstly, I develop an understanding of the unstable foundations through a questioning of the preconceptions and parameters of a project. I begin with a sceptical position as the basis for enquiry, investigate the crisis and terms of the construction, and elaborate on contradictions which are revealed through this enquiry. Secondly, I develop an approach to ways of working within this predicament by creating room for architecture. I explore the use of a fiction as a reconstructed ground, I develop contingent methods for designing within this fiction, and propose strategies for projection which paradoxically both require construction and the dissolution of construction to project (or reconstruct). Through these thematic preoccupations I essay. Trying to project as an ongoing questioning within the contradictions of the construction. Projecting that acknowledges the futility in any resolution but suggests potential in a relocation of the emphasis away from the object of architecture and towards processes for architecture. I reflect on these questions, and the reframing of them by design.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | An architectural project: essays in (re)construction |
| Event: | UCL (University College London) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2019. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Architecture |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10072589 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
