On Augmenting Architecture

Abstract

The thesis was originally meant to be an investigation into the necessity of architectural ornamentation. Throughout the exploration however, it became evident that architectural ornamentation was not all that was being studied. Instead, a broader term was needed in order to define the study. Instead of simply ornamenting architecture, the thesis is a study on augmenting architecture; more precisely, a study of the several elemental ways through which architectural experience can most effectively be augmented to foster aesthetic expression and heighten general architectural experience. The thesis deals with five of these fundamental elements; phenomenology, craft, contrast, complexity, and representation. The project that has been developed with these ideas in mind is an ancestral columbarium and the path that leads visitors to it. It is sited in a theoretical Virginian landscape that was designed simultaneously with the architecture, in order to present the architectural ideas with greater clarity and precision. The columbarium and path are a part of a larger family residence that includes an ancestral home, but for the sake of time the home was not designed. Instead, the relevant ideas are expressed through the path to the ancestral columbarium and the columbarium itself.