Framing the Edge of Time: Disaster Architecture and Change

Abstract

In this dissertation, I conduct a reflection on the effects of disaster on time perceptions and their consequences on architecture as a vessel of social and individual values, through a study of two major paradigmatic disasters spaces – Post World War II Japan and Post-earthquake Haiti. While on the surface these two cases do not have many points in common, both are instrumental to establishing the manifestation of disasters' impacts on the culture of construction and on the architectural theories that ensue from them. The first case, Japan after the Second World War, establishes the long term influences and changes in social and architectural thought that occur after a disaster, while Haiti, examines the role of the architect in the reconstruction phases and attempts to register the immediate impressions of local architects on the disaster's impact on their practice.

I show that both cases exhibit manifestations of the importance of the architect's role of not only building back, but moving forward while capitalizing on the events and social changes that happened.