Designing Meaning : An Academic Thesis
Architecture is one part construction, one part expression. To have construction
alone, a building is born. To have expression alone, art is created. It is within the
marriage of both construction and expression that meaningful architecture can be
made.
In my thesis investigation, I have found potent architecture to be born most easily
from the fruit of a place. Architecture, made from the history, the culture, and the
essence of a place has the most potential to carry a true meaning for its users and
Architecture is one part construction, one part expression. To have construction alone, a building is born. To have expression alone, art is created. It is within the marriage of both construction and expression that meaningful architecture can be made.
In my thesis investigation, I have found potent architecture to be born most easily from the fruit of a place. Architecture, made from the history, the culture, and the essence of a place has the most potential to carry a true meaning for its users and occupants. To have a meaningful piece of architecture is to have a gem worth polishing.
My thesis project has taken the historical, and cultural understanding of the Air Force Base at Plattsburgh, New York and compiled multiple forms of expression to create a meaningful architecture for the future.
Neither form nor function can be imposed on a place. Both form and function must be the product of what already is. Design that pulls from context will always have a dialogue with its surroundings. My architecture aims to create a meaningful design through expression and user dialogue; a marriage only achieved through research and understanding.
This thesis project has taken a historical, and cultural understanding of the Air Force Base at Plattsburgh, New York and compiled multiple forms of expression to create meaningful architecture for the future.
A High Speed Transportation Hub and Cold War Memorial, Plattsburgh Air Base, Plattsburgh, New York.
A glass mountain roof structure, interpolated from a map of the 46 tallest peaks in the Adirondack Park. This is the only architectural evidence of the massive transportation hub and Cold War memorial located 200 feet below the earth’s surface.
Architecture is one part construction, one part expression. To have construction alone, a building is born. To have expression alone, art is created. It is within the marriage of both construction and expression that meaningful architecture can be made.
In this site section facing East, a glass mountain expression of the neighboring Adirondack Mountain range is seen encapsulating a memorialized public park space that is equal in area to 84 consecutive Brooklyn Bridges; over 5 Million SF.
Traveling from NYC, BOS, CHI, and YUL at speeds up 550 MPH, visitors will move through 2.5 miles of concrete runway, 10’ thick. When finally slowing to a halt, the building occupants will find themselves in a train terminal located 31‘ below the runway’s surface,
After exiting the train terminal, the building’s occupants will be immediately faced with 12 layers of concrete that appear to have been blown away by a nuclear blast. Exposing the slender rebar that once reenforced the walls of protection.The final destination of the American traveler and tourist of the future is a place that celebrates growth and new life. This is the world’s largest indoor ecosystem, and living war memorial. Providing the general public with an opportunity to experience the massive scale of a 200’ deep crater formed by a nuclear bomb that could have been dropped on Plattsburgh, New York during the Cold War.
Academic Thesis Team:Rion Philbin, Bruce Mcneil, Ann Pitt, Dan Heisel